AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



665 



Hiver and Orone-Xrap.— Mr. 



N. C. Petrie, of Cherry Valley, O., has 

 obtained a patent on a new hiver and 

 drone-trap, one of which is sent to our 

 Museum. Mr. Petrie says : 



Its special object is to direct a swarm 

 of bees into an empty hive. The attach- 

 ment is hung on the hives by hooks 

 secured to the upper side of the device. 

 It is an elongated L-shaped box, with 

 openings in the end, and deflecting 

 cages or guide ways laid from the open- 

 ings. These guide ways are made of 

 zinc, perforated, the perforations being 

 of a size to permit the workers to pass 

 ' readily therethrough, but pervents the 

 escape of the queen and drones. The 

 guide ways are entirely open on the 



sides adjacent to the hives, so that the 

 bees may freely enter, and by them be 

 directed into the attachment. They 

 may be also open at the bottom to affect 

 an economy of material, the ledge of the 

 hives preventing the bees from passing. 

 The front and left sides are covered by 

 wire screening, so that the movements 

 of the bees may be observed. 



The main idea of our swarmer is to 

 allow enough workers to accompany the 

 queen to induce her to remain in the 

 new hive, and we think that our swing- 

 ing partition will allow three times as 

 many bees to accompany the queen as 

 can go with her by using the cone. 



The swinging partition is hung from 

 the top of the box, and is met about two- 

 thirds of the way by an elevated plat- 

 form or step, which reaches to within 

 3^ of an inch of the bottom of the parti- 

 tion or gate, leaving room for a worker 

 to get under, but forcing the queen or 

 drone to swing it inwardly. It is pre- 

 vented from swinging outward by a 

 staple in the top of the box inside. 



Queen - Cell Protectors are 



received from N. D. West, Middleburgh, 

 N. Y., for our Museum. They will be 

 illustrated and described next week. 

 The engravings came too late for this 

 issue. See page 684:, 



Hopkins, Mo., has had an attack 

 of the "nuisance" fever. Mr. J. C. 

 Stewart, who kept bees there, sent us a 

 copy of the "ordinance," and writes 

 thus : 



I have engaged a new location three- 

 quarters of a mile out of town. I could 

 have located on the edge and given 

 some of the parties who fought the bees 

 more trouble, but I will not do that. It 

 was the bees' spotting the clothing, 

 which decided the board. 



I told them if such a law should be- 

 come extensive, it would crush the 

 industry. The drouth last season was 

 another factor against the bees. I thank 

 you for your interest shown. Never 

 saw better prospects for a crop of honey. 

 I have six frames of brood per hive. 



J. C. Stewart. 



This ends the trouble without appeal 

 to courts of law. 



Duty on Queens.— On this sub- 

 ject Prof. Cook wrote us as follows on 

 May 11, 1891: 



Dear Friend : — I have a letter from 

 Secretary Foster, of the Treasury De- 

 partment, that he cannot make a 

 decision to receive queen-bees free of 

 duty, except as the requisite certificates 

 are secured and presented. This is too 

 bad ! Now, we ought at once to find out 

 just what an importer must do to be 

 relieved of that duty, that the matter 

 may be made plain and as easy as 

 possible. I believe, were 1 to go to 

 Washington, I could secure a different 

 ruling. Perhaps I might go in August. 

 A. J. Cook. 



We urged Prof. Cook to go to Wash- 

 ington at once to attend to the matter, 

 but he writes thus : 



I could not go to Washington now, 

 but could go in August (about the loth). 

 I believe I could convince the authorities 

 that they would be justified in ruling 

 that queens are an exception, and so we 

 may be all right for next year. It is too 

 late anyway for this season. 



A. J. Cook. 



The matter will now have to rest until 

 August, when Prof. Cook will make a 

 personal appeal to the Secretary of the 

 Treasury, to place queen-bees on the list 

 of exemptions from Customs duties. 



