DRONE AND BEE-TRAPS. 



145 



DRONE AND BEE-TRAPS. 



These are sometimes of considerable service in an 

 Apiary, either to capture undesirable Drones or to clear 

 a super of Bees. Of the former kind the Drone trap 

 made by R. Aston, Newport, Salop, has been found very 

 useful, and is thus described by its maker. 



Figure 57 represents it fixed to a Woodbury hive, 



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Fig- 57- Fig- 58- 



but it is only necessary to alter the shape of the zinc 

 bridge to make it fit the front of a straw skep. The 

 trap is left on until filled, or as long as is desirable ; it 

 offers no hindrance to the Worker Bees, and should the 

 Queen stray into it, she would have to stay there until 

 released by her owner, i is a sectional view of the Drone 

 trap; 2 is a perforated zinc front with apertures 3-i6ths 

 of an inch in diameter, which permits the exit of the 

 Worker Bees only ; 3 is an opening left at back to place 

 before a Bee-trap when fixed to a super, so as to catch its 

 Drones ; 4 is a glass tube down which the Drones march 

 freely into the cage, but cannot find thfeir way back again ; 

 5 is a contrivance through which the Workers can pass 

 as ordinarily, but it has a strip of wood along its centre 

 which darkens the way and renders it less attractive 

 than it otherwise would be to the Drones ; 7 is the zinc 



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