47 



intended for honey only. Almost everywhere the plain sheet of perforated 

 zinc was found in use, and too often it did much harm and no good. Its 

 natural tendency is to sag, so over and over again it was found resting 

 tight on the top-bars of the frames, where it was glued down with pro- 

 polis and every hole plugged up. Of course this stopped communication 

 with the super above and no honey was got. 



One beekeeper was found who had left the extracting supers on all 

 winter without removing the excluder from between the two parts of the 

 hive. He claimed to have four hives alive, but examination showed that 

 only one was really worthy of that description, as three of them were 

 queenless. Some time during the winter the bees had used up all the 

 stores in the lower story, and so had to move on to the honey in the 

 chamber above. The queen was unable to pass through the holes in the 

 excluder, and was consequently left behind. She was probably frozen to 

 death. The wood and zinc excluder illustrated in Bulletin No. 30 is pre- 

 ferable to the all zinc excluder. 



DRONE TRAPS. 



Drone traps are as useful as queen excluders, and just as dangerous in 

 the hands of one who does not understand their use. For instance one 

 beekeeper was found who put them in front of the entrances and kept them 

 there all through the summer months. He even used them at once with 

 warms. The inspector on going through his hives found about a third of 

 them queenless. Here is about what happened. The first swarm is usually 

 headed by the old queen, so a young queen will head the old hive. If a 

 drone trap be put on the hive before she has mated she will be caught as 

 she attempts to leave on her nuptial flight, and perish in the trap. The 

 second and following swarms are headed by virgins and these must fly to 

 meet the drone, but when drone traps are on the hives their fate is to die 

 in the trap. The moral is this, a beekeeper who never examines his hives 

 and consequently does not know what is going on inside should never use 

 a drone trap. 



ANOTHER CAUSE FOR LOSS OF QUEENS. 



On two occasions one inspector came across apiaries where a score of 

 hives stood on a platform side by side as close as they could stand. He 

 wanted to know if many of them did not die off on account of queenless- 

 ness. The owners did not know anything about that, but said the winter 

 losses were very heavy. The gaps were filled up each season from swarms. 

 The honey-crop was usually but a few pounds a hive. On the second visit 

 it was easy to show the owners that many of the colonies were queenless. 



When a young queen returns from her mating flight, if she enters the 

 wrong hive she is killed by the inmates. When colonies stand side by side, 

 and no one has a distinct and permanent marking, as is the condition in 

 these apiaries, it is almost impossible for the young queen to avoid making 

 a mistake, and her life is the price demanded for her blunder. No more 

 than three hives should stand side by side in a group, even then it is better 

 to vary the appearance by placing some conspicuous object on top of a hive 

 or near the entrance. 



WINTERING CONDITIONS. 



A summer's work such as the inspectors experienced gave them a splen- 

 did opportunity to form an opinion as to the best methods of preparing the 



