42 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



than counterbalanced by the reaction that it 

 will have upon the price of the next lower 

 grade into which the great mass of the honey 

 must be placed. In other words, the dealers 

 say, don't sort out the very finest by itself. 

 Leave it in with what has usually passed for 

 No. 1 honey. I do not know that the dealers 

 are particular that the highest grade shall be 

 called "fancy." Perhaps they would be 

 willing that it should be called "No. 1." 

 The point is that they do not want any grade 

 made above that in which must be placed 

 the great mass of honey. They prefer to 

 have the upper grade, if there is one above 

 this, placed in with it and all called une 

 grade, but I do not know that they would 

 wish to give a grade of honey a higher name 

 than it is really and fairly entitled to re- 

 ceive. It is true that the matter of " travel- 

 stain " is not touched upon in the rules. But 

 it was discussed, and there was so much 

 trouble to arrive at any agreement that I be- 

 lieve it was omitted simply because it seemed 

 almost impossible to arrive at some decis- 

 ion, and the difficulty was temporally gotten 

 over by simply leaving this point for some 

 other convention to argue over. This may 

 have been cowardly, but the question was 

 discussed until the members were simply at 

 their wit's end in trying to agree. You may 

 notice that I am trying to give the rules a 

 practical test by giving the market reports 

 in conformity to the rules. A year's actual 

 use of the rules will do more than any amount 

 of argument in showing the points wherein 

 they are lacking. 



THE EVOLUTION OF THE SELF-HIVEK. 



The easiest and simplest way in which 

 bees can be controlled when they swarm, is 

 through their queen. This was attempted 

 long ago through the use of what was called a 

 " queen-yard." It was a sheet of tin, with 

 its edges turned up and slightly in, laid in 

 front of the hive. A laying queen takes wing 

 with some difficulty and hesitation. Those 

 who have watched the issuing of a swarm 

 know that she seldom takes wing until she 

 reaches the edge of the alighting board, 

 where she can "jump off" and thus get a 

 start. The queen yard idea was that the 

 queen would continue trying to climb the 

 slippery walls of tin that slanted in slightly 

 and would continue this fruitless endeavor 

 until the swarm returned. I believe it was 

 occasionally successful, but usually the queen 

 would get her enthusiasm worked up to such 



a pitch that she would fly from the flat sur- 

 face of the tin. This is the way the matter 

 comes to me from reading about it years 

 ago. If I have not told it quite as it is, it 

 will at least answer to give an idea of the 

 principle and somebody can correct me if I 

 am wrong. 



There may have been other attempts at 

 controlling the queen, but they were not suc- 

 cessful until somebody, 1 don't know who, 

 proposed to make sure work of it by clip- 

 ping the queen's wing. In this case some 

 one must be present and catch the queen as 

 she crawls about on the ground in front of 

 the hive. Before she can be caught she 

 must be found, and if the grass is not kept 

 cut short, and the looking for done at ex- 

 actly the right moment, the finding is the 

 cause of no little anxiety and nervousness. 

 Another point ; some objected to mutilating 

 their queens thinking that it had an injuri- 

 ous effect upon them and caused the bees to 

 look upon them with disfavor. Whether or 

 not these views are correct is another story. 



Along about these days, as the almanacs 

 used to say, perforated, queen excluding 

 metal was invented. Soon after this Mr. 

 Henry Alley combined the metal with the 

 old, cone-fly-trap principle and made a trap 

 that would catch queens and drones. I do 

 not know for which purpose the trap was 

 primarily intended, to trap drones or queens, 

 perhaps both, but it is certainly a success at 

 both. 



A drone-trap in front of each colony hav- 

 ing undesirable drones in a queen-rearing 

 apiary, means only desirable drones in the 

 air. 1 presume that most of my readers 

 know how a drone trap is made, but for fear 

 that some may not I will say that it is simply 

 a small box put in front of the entrance of 

 the hive. The front of the l)Ox is covered 

 with perforated, queen- excluding metal. 

 These perforations allow the workers to come 

 and go at will, but restrain the queen and 

 drones. At the top of the box is an opening 

 over which is placed a cone made of wire 

 cloth. The apex of the cone points upward. 

 The queen and drones have no difficulty in 

 finding and passing through this opening 

 into another box placed above the first, but 

 do not find the small opening in the cone by 

 which to return. In short, they are trapped. 



When a swarm issues the queen attempts 

 to go with the bees, but is stopped by the 

 queen-excluding metal in front. She crawls 

 up through the cone and is trapped in the 



