THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



181 



to robbing that would be sure to fol- 

 low the attempt to transfer earlier.— 

 J. E. Pond. 



Transfer them during friut-bloom. 

 —The Editor. 



CatcMnE Swams. 



Qnery, No. 394.— Is there any success- 

 ful method of catching swarms as they issue from 

 ahlve?— Montlcello. N. Y. 



Why, certainly ; consult the books. 

 —A. J. Cook. 



None that I should care to practice. 

 — G. L. Tinker. 



Some use a bee-tent with reported 

 success.— G. M. Doolittle. 



I have never used a swarm-catcher ; 

 but, in my opinion, a swarm-catcher 

 is a possibilitv, but not a practica- 

 bility .—W. Z. Hutchinson. 



Yes. If you see the swarm in time 

 you can catch the queen as she comes 

 out. We have done it often.— Dadant 



&S0N. 



They can be caught with a net 

 placed before the entrance. I have 

 often caught them in that way when 

 several swarms were issuing and were 

 liable to cluster together.— C. W. 

 Dayton. 



I have failed to find a good, practi- 

 cal method. A few low trees in the 

 vicinity is good enough for all practi- 

 cal purposes. If they attempt to 

 leave, catch them with a shot-gun. — 

 H. D. Cutting. 



They can be caught by means of a 

 long box partly covered with wire 

 cloth. The box must be placed over 

 the entrance of the hive just when the 

 swarm starts out. I tried this plan 

 during our great swarming year, 1883, 

 but I do not think it " successful " or 

 practicable.— G. W. Demaree. 



I know of no certain method. One 

 plan is : On the eve of swarming or 

 oefore, place the empty hive beside 

 the old one, and adjust a yard to the 

 entrances of both hives. This yard, 

 by swarming doors, will admit the 

 queen into it from the hive, but as 

 sne cannot get out nor back into the 

 old hive she has to pass into the empty 

 hive followed by the swarm. This 

 plan worked well with fully developed 

 queens, but not with virgin queens. — 

 J. P. H. Brown. 



That depends upon the style of the 

 Live, how arranged in the apiary, and 

 how closely that apiary is watched. 

 Possibly, yes.— James Heddon. 



My queens' wings are clipped, so 

 that if desired the swarm can be 

 caught as it returns. Others have 

 caught swarms at issuing by allowing 

 them to run into an arrangement pre- 

 pared for the purpose. — C. C.MrLLER. 



Quite a number of plans have been 

 given during past years ; none of 

 them, however, have seemed to me to 

 be practical. I know of nothing bet- 

 ter for the purpose than a queen and 

 drone trap ; that will catch the queen, 

 and then of course you can manage 

 the swarm.- J. E. Pond. 



Use a swarm-catcher, or a drone- 

 and-queen-trap.— The Editor. 



Qneen-Excliiiiing Sections. 



Query, No. 395 — Would it be advisable 

 to make the slots in tiie sections, so that when two 

 are placed together they will be queen-excluding, 

 and thus save the exptMise of queen-excluding 

 honey-boards? If not, what would be the objec- 

 tion to this plan ?— Ky. 



While the plan might be feasible, I 

 have never tried it.— J. P. H. Brown. 



I do not think you can get sections 

 made exact enough to work.— C. C. 

 Miller. 



This plan will do if you must ex- 

 clude the queen at the expense of ven- 

 tilation and convenience. — Dadant 

 & Son. 



No. Such an arrangement could 

 not be made perfect enough to accom- 

 plish the object.— G. M. Doolittlb. 



No. We need to see between the 

 sections. I prefer % of an inch space. 

 We need the honey-board anyway, to 

 keep the sections neat. — A. J. Cook. 



In this locality, with the great 

 amount of propolis, they will fill up 

 too many of the spaces. I have had 

 trouble in this line.— H. D. Cutting. 



A queen-excluding honey-board is 

 not always needed, and the openings 

 cannot be made sufiBciently exact in 

 the manner mentioned. — W. Z. 

 Hutchinson. 



I believe that plan would work to 

 advantage, in getting the bees into 

 the sections, but it might be objec- 

 tionable by reason of brace-combs. It 

 certainly would save the expense of a 

 honey-board.— C. W. Dayton. 



No; the objection would be that 

 the ordinary sections could not be 

 made accurate enough, and if they 

 could be, bees are disposed to stop up 

 the narrow passages made of wood. 

 The use of perforated zinc as a queen- 

 excluder is not open to this objection. 

 — G. L. Tinker. 



I have never tested the matter, but 

 fear the workers would not occupy 

 them readily if the slots were so nar- 

 row as stated. It is difficult at times 

 to get bees into sections, even when 

 a much larger space than would allow 

 a queen to pass through is given.— J. 

 E. Pond. 



The objection to the plan is, suffi- 

 cient accuracy of the width of the 

 slots cannot be obtained in that way. 

 Besides, every section would have to 

 be perfect, and this would add to the 

 cost of making the sections. The 

 shrinking and swelling of wood makes 

 that material unreliable as a queen- 

 excluder.— G. W. Demaree. 



That will not work ; I have tried it. 

 Sections are never made perfect 

 enough ; they never will be. Wood in 

 any shape will never prove a success 

 for forming queen-excluding work- 

 passages for bees.— James Heddon. 



The " slots" could not be sufficiently 

 accurate to be depended upon. — The 

 Editor. 



^oxxtspondtnu. 



This maric © indicates that the apiarist is 

 located near tne center of the State natned; 

 5 north of the center; 9 south; O* east; 

 ♦O west; and this 6 northeast; X) northwest: 

 o^ southeast; and P southwest of the center 

 of the State mentioned. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Propseil Honey-Protocers' Association 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



ty The annual meeting of the Stark County 

 Bee-Keepers' Society will occur on Apr. 12, 1887. 

 in Grange Hall (over Farmer's Bank). Canton. O. 

 OflQcers for the ensuint,' year will be elected. All 

 bee-keepers are ur^ed to be present, and those 

 having hives or fixtures are requested to bring the 

 same for exhibition Mark Thomson, Sec. 



I have carefully read and re-read 

 the article on this subject, found on 

 page 774 of the Bee Journal for 

 1886, and I must confess that I am 

 that thick-headed that I cannot see 

 anything of benefit in the course ad- 

 vised for the world as a whole ; not 

 but what I would be the last one to 

 cry prices of our production down to 

 the helping to enrich another beyond 

 a fair compensation for his labor, for 

 this would be unjust to myself. The 

 question that comes to me {and ought 

 to come to every one, it seems to me), 

 is, h;ive I a right, by any combination 

 of persons or monopoly of any kind, 

 to extort money from any or all, that 

 I may receive and reap a benefit to 

 to myself f I claim that I have no 

 such right, and any effort on my part 

 so to do is contrary to the teachings 

 of Holy Writ, and shows me to be 

 selfish, not loving my " neighbor as 

 myself." 



Again, I object to such a wholesale 

 slaughter of our commission whole- 

 sale-dealers. These are charged with 

 being responsible for the low prices 

 of honey, but for the life of me I can- 

 not see how or where. Honest, sober 

 thought, it seems to me, will convince 

 any person who loves his " neighbor 

 as himself," that our present prices of 

 honey have come from a production 

 so great that the " thousandaire " 

 cannot purchase it all, while the 

 wages of the day-laborer have been so 

 reduced that he cannot afford it as a 

 luxury as they could 12 to 16 years 

 ago, when they were getting 300 per 

 cent, bettey pay than they are now. 

 The persons who have their thousands 

 are not the majority class who con- 

 sume honey ; if they were there would 

 be no oppression in advancing prices 

 to a certain extent. 



Who are the consumers of honey ? 

 The majority of them are the laboring 

 class who now get from 75 cents with 

 board to $1 .50 and board themselves, 

 for a day's labor. Will Mr. Baldridge 

 change his occupation as an apiarist 

 at the present prices of honey with 

 anv of these, thinking to make money 

 at it V I would not. I could not do 

 the labor of any of these men for a 

 single month, and yet I manage my 

 apiary and have double the money as 

 pav for the same at the end of a 

 year that they do ; this from the sales 

 from the apiary even at our " ruinous" 

 prices. 



Again, the commisson men are 

 charged as having " chief interest " 



