Much disappointment is often felt, when removing a super that appears well filled with honey, at finding that brood, and not honey, is in many of the cells. In such a case the super should be replaced on the hive until such time as the brood has hatched out. The comb will be found to be discoloured, but there is no help for that. The fact of there being even a few cells so occupied is a great deterioration. This little contrivance, however, excludes both the queen and the drones, the wires or strips of zinc being fixed too close together to admit of their passage, though wide enough for the worker bees. It is adapted for any hole that it will cover, but more especially for the openings in the tops of straw hives communicating with the supers. Some of our better-class hives are fitted with slides pierced in like manner, or else with sheets of perforated zinc to ensure the same end.
The queen-preventer also serves a useful purpose in preventing pollen being carried into the supers, as the edges of the wires or bars act as scrapers upon the legs of the bees.
§ XVIII. BEE-TRAPS.
The object of these is to clear supers of bees previous to taking the honey. There are several of them in use, but the principle of most is the same. Clutton's bee-trap resembles one of the common round-holed mouse-traps, but the bees have to pass out instead of in. Over the little circular hole a pin is hung perpendicularly, and permitted by wire staples to open far enough to allow the escape of the bee, after which it falls back and denies readmission. The super having been removed from the hive and inverted, the trap may be fitted into one of the sides of a box, which, without its lid, is then inverted upon the super, every opening being closed which could admit a bee from outside. The super is then darkened, when the bees within will make for the light through the trap. Mr. Cheshire and Mr. Aston have also invented traps. Mr. Aston's has talc falls in place of pins.
§ XIX. DRONE-TRAPS.
If the increase of drones grows into an intolerable nuisance a trap may be applied for their partial extermination. Aston's drone-trap is an ingenious contrivance, though we recommend its use only under limitations. It consists of a box to affix to the hive entrance, with an opening from the inside, but no means of exit except through perforations which admit only the workers; the bees are attracted into it by the light, while their proper flight-hole is darkened by a ridge over which they can just make their way into the hive. The drones are thus left in the box to perish. The objections which we have to the trap are—first, that the surmounting of the ridge must surely prove an impediment to the work of the bees; secondly, that the ridge obstructs ventilation; and thirdly, that should the queen stray into the trap, she will, unless promptly discovered, soon share the same fate with the drones. But if the trap be applied only for an hour or so at the part of the day when the drones are leaving the hive in the greatest numbers, it may then perhaps sufficiently effect its purpose and be free from any serious drawback.
§ XX. BEE-FEEDERS.
It has long been acknowledged that the best mode of feeding bees is through an opening at the top of the stock hive, as bees can thus take the food without coming abroad. Another important feature is the cleanliness with which liberal feeding can be accomplished; and few operations require more care than this does. If liquid sweet is left hanging about the hive it tempts robber bees, and when once the bees of an apiary have had a taste, there is no knowing where their depredations will stop. Even if no hives be completely destroyed, weakness from loss of numbers will be the portion of most, if not of all, the hives in the garden. The morals of our favourites are here a good deal at fault, for the stronger hives, when their inordinate passion is thus stirred up by the carelessness or want of knowledge of the bee-keeper, attack and prey upon the weaker ones. "To be forewarned is to be forearmed"—and "prevention is better than cure."
