610 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1 



sent is a decided improvement over the one 

 sent us some years ago by Mr. Alley. To 

 commence at the bottom, we use a | strip 

 instead of full width of trap as in yours, 

 leaving only a J-inch vertical opening to the 

 hive, having a §X12 entrance. Also if the 

 Alley is set on a sloping alighting-board like 

 your Dovetailed hive, the top of the trap is 



^ inch from the hive. Moth eggs also collect 

 under the wide bottom. In our trap you 

 will notice the holes through the center strip 

 are very near the front zinc, with no square 

 edge between, enabling the queen to go into 

 the trap at once— a. new feature. In the 

 Alley, with J inch between zinc and hole, 

 with a square edge, the queen will often be 

 hours in trying to get through the upper 

 row of perforations before finding even your 

 large cones. The trap part as you have it is 

 too shallow, and that wide upper strip makes 

 it difficult to see the queen, if many drones 

 are present. The little hole you have for 

 releasing the queen is entirely too small, and 

 in the wrong place. When the swarm is 

 entering the new hive, the queen will be 

 found trying to get through the lower rows 

 of perforations, and would run right over 

 such a small opening, though the nail were 

 out, just as she often does over the tops of 

 the cones. In ours the slide door in the rear 

 zinc is a new feature, and is about perfec- 

 tion. You will see in our trap the rear zinc 

 extends 1 inch below the middle strip. This 

 is to prevent the bees when swarming from 

 boiling over, and to get the queens and drones 

 behind the trap— a valuable new feature. 



Our trap has two wire hooks and screw- 

 eyes to fasten it firmly to hive— a new fea- 

 ture. If no fastening is used somehow, by 

 wind or bees, the trap is liable to be pushed 

 away from the hive, with possible loss of 

 swarms. In our trap the ventilation is much 

 better than in the Alley, and it is much eas- 

 ier to see the queen when trapped. 



Lastly, our traps are painted white, not 



only making them look neat, but enabling 

 one to see much better. 

 Milan, 111., Feb. 23. 



[Your trap is an improvement in some 

 respects, and in others I think it is open to 

 some serious objections, the principal one 

 being that it will not stand rough handling 

 in the mails, for a large per- 

 centage of the traps we sell are 

 transmitted to our customers in 

 Uncle Sam's bags. The removal 

 of the horizontal strip of wood 

 or brace at the upper corner in 

 front weakens the trap materi- 

 ally. In the mail-bags, or even 

 in handling in the yard, or piling 

 up for storage in the fall or win- 

 ter, the perforated metal, where 

 it bends at right angles at the 

 top in front, would be almost 

 sure to be jammed in, for there 

 is nothing to support it. Then 

 the small strip of wood in the 

 rear, with a groove to allow the 

 perforated zinc to slide, to move 

 up and down, is very weak. It 

 would be easily broken, and, 

 moreover, there would be great 

 danger that the slide would slip 

 out of its groove. The basic 

 principles of your trap could still 

 be preserved in a modified con- 

 struction, and yet give an article 

 that would be fully as strong as the Root- 

 Alley trap. I question, however, the advis- 

 ability of increasing the space in the upper 

 story of the trap over that in the Root 

 model. We have used them every season 

 with the reduced space, and never found 

 any necessity for increasing it. — Ed.] 



WOULD NOT A DORMANT STATE OF BEES IN 



WINTER ACCOUNT FOR FREQUENT LARGE 



QUANTITIES OF HONEY LEFT IN 



THE SPRING ? 



If the bees consume as much honey dur- 

 ing such winters as the one just past, which 

 Prof. Henry, of the Weather Bureau, says 

 "has gone into history as the worst on rec- 

 ord," how is it that the bees have to eat reg- 

 ularly as we do to survive? My bees came 

 through all right, and brought their honey 

 through too, or so much of it that I am afraid 

 they will not have empty combs for brood. 

 Now, then, I wish to know how bees win- 

 tered on their summer stands can leave the 

 cluster without freezing to death, and may 

 not this dormant state, so long continued, 

 account for so much honey being present at 

 the close of winter ? G. Houchins. 



Huntington, W. Va., March 21, 



[Generally speaking, bees with proper 

 protection, indoors or outdoors, will con- 

 sume less stores than under the other condi- 

 tions where they have to eat to keep warm, 

 resulting in overcharging their intestines, 

 bringing on disease. But sometimes, tven 

 with proper protection, the bees will not be 

 in that dormant state you speak of, and will 



