THE AMERICAN APICULTUEIST. 



Ill 



very lowest over tAvo dozen queens from 

 you, and must say that yours are always 

 the most prolific as Avell as the most vigor- 

 ous swarm of bees I ever tried." 



Concerning the Funics one man writes 

 that they are very cross, while another 

 says he can handle his without smoke 

 or protection of any kind. There you 

 have it ; fact is, bees of most any race 

 will sting more or less. 



I have several colonies of Punic bees 

 and can go into the apiary a thousand 

 times a day and not get a sting. Can 

 sit by the hive during the hottest part 

 of the day and not be molested, nor 

 will even one Punic bee attempt to sting. 

 They are unlike other bees, as they never 

 volunteer an attack. It requires but 

 little smoke to handle them. 



Until a few years ago I sold each 

 year a large number of nucleus colonies, 

 the same as are used in the Bay State 

 Apiary for queens. These hives have 

 four frames, and quite a colony can be 

 reared in a few weeks in one of them. 



Figure i shows the style of the 

 hive, also a feeder placed in the top. 



Fig. 1. Nucleus hive. 



Will ship such colonies with a selected 

 Punic, Golden Carniolan, or a beautiful 

 Italian queen, including feeder for $3 

 per hive. When the brood begins to 

 hatch the queen may be removed and 

 the bees will rear one or two fine 

 queens. 



PERFECTION REACHED AT LAST. 



After "fooling around" some little 

 time I have finally hit u])on a correct and 

 practical self Swarm-hiver. The cut 

 below fully illustrates it. As stated in 

 June Api, it is an arrangement of the 

 drone-and- queen trap, 'I'he trap, figure 

 2, is made nearly twice as wide, that is, 

 nearly twice as large, from end to end, 

 than those usually sold for drone-and- 

 queen catchers. It is also provided 

 with four tubes, and the luckless drone 

 or queen tliat sallies forth to leave the 

 hive is sure to be trapped. The trap 



Fig. 2. The Perfection self-hiver. 



has a metal front and back. This pro- 

 vides the needed ventilation to the largest 

 colony of bees. Then, again, the entrance 

 is so much wider tiian the one in the old 

 style trap that the bees have no trouble 

 in coming out and going in than they 

 do in hives where no trap is used. In 

 fact, this self-hiver is a superior drone- 

 catcher, as no drone returns to the hive 

 after once leaving the brood chamber ; 

 nor are they fussing at tlie entrance a 

 long time trying to escape, as in the old 

 trap when there are a large number of 

 drones in a hive. Hardly does the drone 

 go to the entrance when he discovers 

 one of the four tubes, and, before he 

 knows it, is in the trap. It is the same 

 with the queen. As surely as she leaves 

 the combs with a swarm she is trapped. 



Figure 2 illustrates the Swarmer com- 

 plete ready to catch a swarm. The 

 is 18 inches long, 10^ inches wide box 

 and 10 inches deep. This is large 

 enough to give the largest swarm all the 

 room they need to cluster in for awhile 

 at least. 



Figure 3 shows the tra]), or queen- 

 and-drone catcher. It is not attached 



