142 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 

 By Henry Alley. 



The mischief effected by the fertile 

 worker is, says Win. Bailantiue, in Farm 

 ^n??(e. tliat the bees appear satisfied with 

 their so-called extemporized queen, and are 

 even hostile to a perfect ;uid fully devel- 

 oped one, stintihiii: h"r to death whenever 

 she is introduced. They will also tear 

 down and destroy everj^ queen cell that 

 may !>e inlrxduced. The colony in tiie 

 ine.intinie will be derreasinu' in the num- 

 ber of workers, and will finally, if left alone, 

 become a colony of drones, provided there 

 is enough lioney in the combs to support 

 them. 



The above clearly illustrates the inex" 

 perience of the author. Bees that have 

 been queenless a time sufficient to de- 

 velop fertile workers, will readily ac- 

 cept of either a queen cell, fertile, or a 

 virgin queen. It is a mistake to sup- 

 pose that but one worker bee deposits 

 eggs in a queenless colony, nearly all 

 the bees have a hand in laying the eggs 

 that produce drones only. 



I never have found any trouble in in- 

 troducing either a queen or cell to such 

 bees ; but the trouble is the fertile work- 

 ers continue to deposit eggs after they 

 have accepted a queen. After a while, 

 however, the queen gets her work in 

 and the colony gradually increases to a 

 full one. 



I have sometimes known fertile work- 

 ers to seize and ball a virgin queen that 

 had been introduced, when she returned 

 from the mating trip. 



Bro Alle\', says W. Z. Ilutcliinson, in 

 Bevievj for August, has sent me two self- 

 hivers, and each lias cauglit a swarm since 

 their arrival. They will catch the ioIwIp, 

 swnrni. There is no mistake about it. 

 The reason is that the bees in leaving and 

 returning to the old hive, in their every 

 day labors, pass through the hiver, and 

 ■when, they swarm the queen is caught 

 near the outer entrance of the hiver, and 

 when the bees return they stay in the hiver 

 with the queen. 



I am inclined to the opinion that I 

 was perfectly safe in offering to give $5 

 in each case where the Perfection Self- 

 hiver failed to hive a swarm. 



Mr. Robert Shaw, of Eosemont, Out., 

 says ; "It takes me all my tim^ to control 

 the swarming fever in the apiai-y." 



A few dollars invested in our Perfec- 

 tion Self-hivers would save all such 

 trouble. One of these hivers, con- 

 taining seven frames, with starters, can 

 be placed at the entrance of a hive and 

 there remain for seven days after it has 

 self-hived a swarm of bees. Of course 

 it must be taken away on the seventh 

 day, as a second swarm is likely to is- 

 sue on the eighth day after the first 

 swarm comes off, and there would very 

 likely be some confusion should the 

 two swarms hive in the same box. 



" I K'ccEivEDoneof Alley's self-hivers, 

 and not a swarm has gone oft' since,"' says 

 Dr. Miller in Glmidnys. 



There must be about a dozen other 

 beekeepers in the same box. Oat of 

 about fifteen self-hivers sent out to 

 beekeepers in various parts of the 

 country, but a few of those who have, 

 them have made any reports. All re- . 

 ports to hand, however, say they are a 

 grand success. 



The Alley traps have done for us good 

 service this year. We b )ught a number 

 of colonies this year, the drone^ of which 

 were not select. Upon all such the Alley 

 trap'was placed, trapping all undesirable 

 drones. We then encouraged those colo- 

 nies that had very fine drones, to rear as 

 large a number as possible. Gleanings, 

 Aug. 1. 



The Alley traps have prpved a great 

 success in thousands of apiaries. 1 have 

 made a great improvement over the old 

 style, and shall be ready by and by to 

 send them out. 



Prices will be the same as for the old 

 style trap. One trap Ijy miil, sixty five 

 cents. See our price list for traps in the 

 flat and by the quantity. 



"Parhaps some of our readers would 

 like to'kuoAv how thick top bars are doing 

 as rejjards presence or abs3uce of burr 

 combs. Some of them have been in use 

 now for three years, and they are perfectly 

 clean to-day as far as spurs of wax are 

 coQcerned, although th3y are soiled as a 



