AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



579 



came so near the perforations that the 

 workers could pass without hindrance, 

 but if strips H of an inch wide were 

 used, unless let into the wood very 

 deeply, they proved a hindrance to the 

 fr^e passage of the workers, the same as 

 the perforations in whole sheets of zinc. 

 The great objection to one-rowed zinc 

 however, was the fact that there were 

 not enough perforations in the queen- 

 excluder, when the zinc was spaced with 

 the wood the same as the brood-frames, 

 to enable a proper ventilation of the 

 supers. 



The result was slow ripening of the 

 stores, that did not so much matter when 

 the flow of nectar was moderate ; but in 

 a great honey-flow, with large colonies 



TWO-ROWED PERFORATED ZINC. 



of bees, the trouble from this cause is so 

 great as to warrant the removal of the 

 excluders altogether. I then made the 

 first two-rowed zinc, and found no 

 further trouble about the ventilation of 

 supers. 



The difference in results may be seen 

 when the number of perforations is taken 

 into consideration. The one-rowed wood 

 zinc queen-excluder, as usually made, 

 contains only from 150 to 175 perfora- 

 tions about 9-16 of an inch long. The 

 same spacing and construction with the 

 two-rowed zinc gives from 300 to 400 

 perforations % of an inch long, and they 

 give ample ventilation and afford ready 

 passage in the largest colonies. 



As the construction brings the wood 

 very near the perforations, the bees are 

 able to pass the zinc as easily and as 

 quickly as over any part of their combs, 

 so that there is not the least obstruction 

 or hindrance to worker-bees in passing 

 the two-rowed wood-zinc combination. 

 It, therefore, constitutes the only alto- 

 gether perfect and satisfactory queen- 

 excluder. 



Another point to be considered is the 

 size of the perforations. To be queen- 

 excluding, and yet allow the free passage 

 of the workers, requires the finest adjust- 

 ment. A variation of less than 1/64 of 

 an inch will permit the passage, also, of 

 the queen — or at least, many of them— 

 for there is considerable difference in the 



size of queens, or, rather, in the size of 

 the thorax. 



The thorax of the drone is so large 

 that a 3/16 inch perforation excludes 

 him, but the queens will easily pass such 

 a perforation, as a rule. 



The worker-bees are able to squeeze 

 through a perforation 5/32 of an inch, 

 but perforations of that size are imprac- 

 ticable because so difficult of passage, 

 and the perforation will only allow free 

 passage when large enough to admit the 

 bee's head without wedging. 



I have a size of perforated zinc made 

 in my earlier experiments, that is consid- 

 erably larger than 5/32 of an inch, in 

 which I have often seen the bees fast by 

 the top of the head and the tip of the 

 mandibles, which appears to be a little 

 greater in length than the diameter of 

 the thorax. And, as if by instinct, they 

 know that if their heads can pass an 

 opening their bodies can, also ; so they 

 have a habit of bobbing their heads 

 through a suspicious opening. If no 

 obstruction is encountered, they then 

 pass readily. 



It will be seen, then, how easy it is, in 

 making the perforations queen-exclud- 

 ing, to make them too small, so as to be 

 more or less obstructive, and how neces- 

 sary it is that every perforation should 

 be exact. No one who has not had expe- 

 rience knows how difficult it is to make 

 dies out of tempered steel and get them 

 exactly right. I have spent days in tem- 

 pering, refitting, and tempering again, 

 to get them right. For this reason I 

 will not use a machine that makes more 

 than one perforation at a time, as it is 

 impossible to make perfect and uniform 

 work on a machine that makes many 

 perforations at once ; so our machines 

 must run very fast. One machine runs 

 200 a minute, and great skill is required 

 to operate it. 



Now, a word to Dr. Miller, and others 

 inquiring if more than one size of perfor- 

 ations in our queen-excluding zinc is 

 necessary : I will say that they are not, 

 but in making a perforation that is fully 

 practicable for the worker-bees (and none 

 other should be thought of) it will be 

 found that very small queens — little if 

 any larger than the workers — will occa- 

 sionally pass it. But such queens are 

 rare, even among virgin queens, so that 

 the zinc which I use is fully practicable 

 as a queen-excluder, for either virgin or 

 laying queens. I have had virgin queens 

 above my queen-excluders for days at a 

 time, trying continually to get through, 

 without success, and undoubtedly trying 

 every one of the perforations, so that if 

 there had been one just a little too large, 



