THE BEE-KEEPRS' REVIEW, 



295 



likely to swarm. Tliis class of bee-keep- 

 ers out-number the specalist ten to one; 

 they swell the subscription list of the 

 diflferent bee periodicals; they buy and 

 use the major portion of all the bee-keep- 

 ers' supplies that are manufactured. 

 "Many a mickle makes a muckle. " It is 

 to this class that the queen trap is especi- 

 ally of value. Few things are more vex- 

 atious than to come home and poke 

 around in the grass and weeds, looking 

 for a clipped queen that has crawled out 

 with a swarm, and has probably been 

 picked up by a king-bird, cat-bird, robin 

 or hop-toad; or, perchance, has crawled 

 into another hive, and either been killed 

 or has killed another queen equally as 

 valuable as herself. If she has run the 

 gantlet of all these possible mishaps, 

 and you find her all right, then comes the 

 all important question of where did she 

 couie front , to which hive does she belong ? 



Dr. Franklin said ''time is money;" 

 and if we take into account the time nec- 

 essary for one of the above named per- 

 sons to find and clip a queen (to say 

 nothing of the danger of maiming or 

 killing her), and add to that the time 

 spent in hunting clipped queens ( not 

 counting the value of those that are lost), 

 methinks it were cheaper to buy traps. 



I have used the Alley trap for ten years, 

 and have never lost a swarm or a queen ; 

 and these traps are good for ten years 

 more. I frequently leave the queen in 

 the trap for half a day, or even longer, 

 until such times as it suits me to attend 

 to the matter. What a pleasure to know 

 that when you come home, even if the 

 bees have swarmed, you will find the 

 queen in the trap and you will know to a 

 certainty just where she belongs. All 

 you have to do is to move the old hive 

 away, set a new one in its place (with the 

 brood chamber contracted to five I-. 

 frames), put on a queen excluding hon- 

 ey board, lift the supers off the old hive, 

 bees and all, set it on the new one, then 

 put an empty body on top of the super, 

 and lift the frames out of the old hive and 

 shake the bees down in front of the new 



hive and put the brood in the body on 

 top of the super, clap on the cover, open 

 the trap, and let the queen run in with 

 the swarm, then throw up your hat and 

 sa}- ' ' // 'hoopee! Big Injun Me. 'Jake 

 many sca/ps." At the end of seven days 

 — well, if you care to know what I do 

 then, I'll tell you some other time. 



Ashbourne, Pa., Oct. 6, 1899. 

 [Yes, we shall be glad to have you tell 

 us what you do at the end of seven days — 

 tell the whole story now that you ha\e 

 started out. By the way, friends, Mr. 

 I'^lovver is the one who entertained us so 

 delightfully with his magic lantern pic- 

 tures accompanied by humorous, scienti- 

 fic and eloquent remarks — the remarks 

 being well adapted to the pictures — Ed.] 



HUXTIXG WILD BEES. 



How to Find them in the Winter; and How lo 

 Attract them by the Burning of Wax. 



HERBERT CLUTE. 



N this locality bee-hunters go through 

 the woods whenever there comes a 

 thaw in winter. When a bee is found on 

 the snow, ths hunter circles around the 

 bee until more bees are found. In ap- 

 proaching the tree the bees are found 

 more plentifully. I'nder the tree they 

 will be found scattered around very thick- 

 ly. If the wind is blowing, or was blow- 

 ing when the bees flew, it must be re- 

 membered that the bees will be scattered 

 more thickly on the side of the tree that 

 is oppositt the wind. A thawing day 

 followed by a freezing night that forms 

 a crust thick enough to hold up a man, 

 furnishes the best conditions for this 

 kind of bee-hunting. 



During the hot dry weather of summer, 

 when the bees are breeding, our bee-hunt- 

 ers go along brooks and streams, and 

 "line" the bees as they go home with 

 their loads of water. With a load of 



