DRONE AND BEE-TRAPS. 



147 



The first requisite is a box (fig. 59), dark when closed, 

 and large enough to hold the super, or any number of 

 them ; holes three-quarters of an inch in diameter are 

 bored in the front of the box, and the traps, as fig. 59, 

 are hung or tacked over these holes. The trap is made of 

 a block of deal seven-eighths of an inch thick by three- 

 quarters wide and 2\ inches long. Half the block is 

 chamfered or sawn off, as in the drawing, which will give 

 a sloping face to the block when in place. A quarter- 

 inch hole is bored through the middle of the block, and 

 two staples of wire, about the thickness of an ordinary 

 pin, are fastened one above the other below this hole. 

 The staples are inclined upward, and are of such a width 

 that a pin being dropped between from above can easily 

 traverse them, and yet they must be narrow enough to 

 prevent the head of the pin from slipping through, and 

 its body from being pushed sideways much beyond the 

 centre of the hole. A third square staple (fig. 60) is 

 placed close above the upper round staple, and its points 

 driven in until its horizontal part lies tightly against the 



Fig. 60. 



Fig. 61. 



face of the block. The head of the pin rests on this 

 square staple, and the metal surface relieves the slight 

 friction which sometimes might prevent the point of the 

 pin from dropping into its proper place. 



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