The American Apiculturist. Vol. III. No. 6, June 15, 1885: A Journal Devoted to Scientific and Practical Beekeeping — John Shaqi
The American Apiculturist. Vol. III. No. 6, June 15, 1885: A Journal Devoted to Scientific and Practical BeekeepingVarious
Science
The American Apiculturist. Vol. III. No. 6, June 15, 1885: A Journal Devoted to Scientific and Practical Beekeeping
Various
Bee culture -- Periodicals
The trouble with the “glutted” honey market comes, not from the use of
the honey extractor, or the over-production of honey, but from a lack of
proper knowledge and means of creating a demand. As a rule we do not
consider it best to extract honey from combs containing unsealed larvæ,
but one must be governed by his knowledge of and experience in this
business.
We could not be hired to do without the extractor for many reasons.
We should be pleased to hear from Mr. Dadant on this subject, as he uses
the extractor extensively.
A few days since while we were busy at the desk, Mr. Alley called us out
into the apiary to witness a swarm of bees issuing from a hive that was
provided with one of his drone traps. It was very amusing and
interesting to watch the honey-laden bees rush pell-mell out through the
perforated metal entrance giving conclusive evidence that the
perforations were amply large to freely admit a worker bee laden either
with pollen or honey.
Soon the queen unable to force her way through at the entrance passed
into the trap. As soon as the majority of the bees had passed out we
removed the drone trap, fastened it to the end of a long pole and rested
it against a small tree near by. In a short time the bees, discovering
their queen in the trap, clustered upon it.
When the bees had become quiet we removed the trap to a convenient shady
spot near by and laying it on its side placed over it one of the
swarming boxes, covering the box with a board so as to cover the wire
cloth and make it dark within the box.
We then left the swarm in that condition for about six hours in order to
experiment with it and learn whether the queen would force her way out.
In the early evening we examined the swarm and found that the queen was
out among the bees in the swarming box, and found that as the trap was
laid on its side the bees that filled the trap formed a bridge over
which the queen could pass through the wire tube through which she
passed into the trap.
This is a valuable feature of the trap because if one cannot always be
at hand to attend to the swarms, the queen after about six hours will
find her way back into the hive again, thus preventing either her loss
or that of the bees.
We have had considerable experience with hiving swarms, but never
performed the task with such ease or so speedily as we can with the
drone trap. We can heartily endorse it as invaluable to the beekeeper
even for this one purpose alone.
We shall experiment further with the trap and give the results.
--Mr. J. D. Goodrich of East Hardwick, Vermont, has sent us some most
excellent comb foundation. The thin for sections was especially fine.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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