A. AND M. COLLKGE APIARY. 



45 



successful, but has not as yet been extensively tested, and in any event 

 is only adapted to the expert bee keeper who thoroughly understands at 

 all times the conditions prevailing within the hive. Where natural 

 swarming is allowed by the bee keeper, several plans have been resorted 

 to with success to prevent the issuing swarms from leaving the apiary. 

 Among these we will mention: clipping the wings of the old queen, the 

 Alley drone and queen trap, and entrance guards. At the approach of 

 swarming time the queen in each hive may be caught and the outer por- 

 tion of the wing on one side clipped off, care being taken not to cut too 

 close to the body. The queen should always be picked up by the wings 

 or thorax from the combs, whether for clipping or not, and never handled 

 by the abodmen. In clipping the wings hold the queen between the 

 thumb and forefinger of the left hand, grasping her by the thorax. The 

 outer portion of the wing can now be clipped off with a small pair of 

 scissors, and the queen gently replaced upon the comb. In the absence 

 of scissors the wing can be taken off with the blade of a sharp pocket 



Entrance guard. (After A. I. 

 Root Co. 



Fig. 24. Alley queen and drone trap. (After 

 A.I. Root Co.) 



knife, by so holding the queen that the wing to be clipped lies flat and 

 even upon some wooden surface, as upon the top of the hive, and the 

 blade of the knife pressed down upon it. When a swarm emerges from 

 a colony having a clipped queen, the queen will, of course, attempt to 

 follow, but being unable to fly will fall in front of the entrance or near 

 it, where she can be readily picked up by the apiarist. The swarm may 

 remain flying in the air for some time, usually long enough for the 

 apiarist to remove the old hive and substitute a new one in its place. 

 The swarm finding its queen missing will return to the old stand and 

 enter the new hive placed to receive it. While the swarm i entering, 

 the old queen is released and allowed to enter with them. The old hiv 

 containing its brood, swarm and young queen or queen cell is placed on 

 a new stand. The device shown in Fig. 24, known as the Alley drone 

 and queen trap, is used in much the same way. As will be noticed from 

 the figure, this trap exactly fits over the entrance to a hive, and no bees 

 can enter or leave without passing through the oblong openings in the 

 perforated zinc of which the trap is made. These openings are of such 

 a size that workers may pass through readily but neither drones nor 



