When I started beekeeping in 1963, many of the established beekeepers had several drone traps that hadn't been used for some time. They were box shaped traps that were fixed to the front of the hive. with queen excluder and escape cones. They trapped drones, but could allow access for the smaller workers to continue their foraging. Apparently, the traps were made and widely sold in the belief that as drones were lazy and were a burden to the colony, if you killed them, the colony would produce more honey, because there were fewer drones to feed. I was told that in the evening, the beekeeper would immerse the traps, with drones, into a bucket of water to drown them.

Although I have acquired some over the years, I have never used one and never seen one used. I was told the reason they weren't used was because, having less drones, the colonies lost morale and didn't work as hard, so produced less honey, not more. I'm sure that was correct, but I suspect the congestion at the entrance made it difficult for the foragers to do their work, so they were less efficient. I don't know when they were introduced or why, but I don't think they were used for long. I have always wondered if they were something to do with increasing food production during wartime. They had certainly disappeared from equipment suppliers catalogues by 1963.

Roger Patterson.

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