292 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



THE DRONE AND QUEEN 

 TRAP. 



For the benefit of Mr. Ernest 

 Root, son of A. I. Root, Editor of 

 Gleanings in Bee Culture, and all 

 others who have a wrong impression 

 of some of the uses of the drone 

 and queen-trap, we publish the fol- 

 lowing conversation taken from 

 Gleanings Oct. 15. It seems that 

 our friend. Dr. C. C. Miller, while on 

 his way to the North American bee- 

 keepers' convention at Indianapolis, 

 "stopped over" to visit Mr. Root, 

 While there the Dr. desired to see 

 one of "Alley's drone and queen- 

 traps," he never having seen one. A 

 trap was shown him, when the follow- 

 ing conversation took place between 

 the two persons above named. 



"Just at this time the apiarist came 

 into the apiary to commence work. 

 When he came up where we were talk- 

 ing I handed him the smoker I had just 

 filled. 



"By the way," said the doctor, when 

 the apiarist had left us, "I should like 

 to see one of the Alley drone-traps." 



"Oh? yes, sir," said I. "Here is one 

 on the shelf, and also one of the Batch- 

 elder." 



The doctor -then explained that he 

 had apiaries located out from his home, 

 and tliat it sometimes happened, dur- 

 ing the swarming season, that it was 

 three or four days before he and liis 

 assistants could get to them. 



'•Now," said he, "do you think tlie 

 Alley trap, from your experience, 

 would catcli a queen when the swarm 

 issued, and keep heralivethree or four 

 days?" 



"I think not, as the trap is now con- 

 structed. Four or five hours, possibly 

 a day, would be as long as she would 

 live," I replied. 



I then explained that there was a 

 little device for letting the queen go 

 back into the hive, when the bees, dis- 

 covering her absence, had returned. 



"But that is not what I want," said 

 my friend. "The queen for me must 

 be kept alive in the cage for three or 

 four days." After discussing it for 

 awhile, and referring the matter to 

 "A. I.," it seemed at least feasible that 

 the queen might be thus kept after the 

 swarm l;[ad issued. 



I then attached one of the Alley 

 traps to a chaff hive, that the doctor 

 might see how the bees behaved. As 

 I have, in a former issue, explained, 

 the bees on returning seemed a little 

 confused. While we were watching, 

 a number of said bees pa.ssed the trap 

 without any apparent difficulty, and 

 with pollen adl.eiing to their hgs too." 



Is it not strange that a man with 

 Dr. Miller's experience in bee cul- 

 ture should not know that a queen 

 during the warm weather will live in 

 almost any place twelve hours with- 

 out food? I am equally surprised 

 that our young friend Root should 

 make such a statement. The idea that 

 a queen will not live but four or five 

 hours in one of the drone-traps is, 

 indeed, queer. 



Dr. Miller has an apiary some dis- 

 tance from home and would like to 

 use the traps if assured and convinced 

 that; it is practical and what he needs. 

 Well, now. Dr., I will send you as 

 many traps as you need, and if they 

 do not do the work as well as you 

 desire, that is, catch the queens when 

 a swarm issues, and keep them alive, 

 at least, a week, I will make you a 

 present of all the traps you call for. 



I have repeatedly had swarms is- 

 sue and removed the trap, queen and 

 all, a few feet from the hive the bees 

 came from and there it has remained 

 in some cases, nearly two weeks. 

 The bees, about a pint in all, would 

 stick to the queen, and take a no- 

 tion to swarm out the trap about ev- 

 ery day, but as the queen could not 

 leave they would quickly return. I 

 should be willing to pay $10 for each 

 queen that dies in the trap in less 

 than eight days. The best evidence 

 that a colony has swarmed in the ab- 

 sence of the apiarist is the fact that 

 the queen is in the trap, and one may 

 know that a queen is in the trap by 

 the quantity of bees that will remain 

 in it when a queen is there. Hence, 

 any one may know at a glance, where 

 the trap is used, that a swarm has is- 

 sued. 



