Anyone know what this is ? <Pics>

[iCreek]

My 9 year old son came home with this the other day, he and grandpa were digging through one of the old sheds at the homestead. It measures 10" tall, 6" wide, and 14" long, small wire side box framed with wood, solid tin can with some type of piece of wood/screen/lid small piece on the top. Also a small piece of wood/screen laying on the bottom. He said there were about 4-6 of these inside one of the sheds. Farm has been vacant since early 60s.

 

[John Ellison]

P_ossibly a cricket cage for fishing.

 

[KsWoodsMan]

Mink cage , maybe. or for a small predator.

The can used as a way to get feed to them without actually opening the cage.

 

[cjnspecial]

P_ossibly a cricket cage for fishing.

:agree2:

Looks like what we use to hold crickets or catawba worms for fishing.

 

[iCreek]

Here is a shot of the old farm, he found this in the old summer kitchen, red block building. Seems like it was a catch all after the elders passed on.

As far as crickets, would they have to be feed? The contraption on the top is kind of odd with a solid can, and that wood thing that pulls out.

 

[forestryworks]

that picture of the farm looks like a place the james gang might have hid out at

 

[Rookie1]

Here is a shot of the old farm, he found this in the old summer kitchen, red block building. Seems like it was a catch all after the elders passed on.

As far as crickets, would they have to be feed? The contraption on the top is kind of odd with a solid can, and that wood thing that pulls out.

Thats a neat old farm. Id love to poke around it to see all its treasures.

 

[iCreek]

Thats a neat old farm. Id love to poke around it to see all its treasures.

Yeah its about a 1.5 mile ride on the four wheelers, we go in the back way. The driveway is a little over 1 mile, and the four kids would walk to school, about another 4 miles away. It sits on 320 acres and is connected to our farmland also, which makes it real nice. Here are some more shots, we really enjoy going over in the winter months, I took these last fall/winter. Heck the outhouse is still standing, third pic down.

 

[ShoerFast]

To start off, I have never seen enything just like that. But it dose look like a contraption made to catch honey bees.

The little box is for the queen bee, put her in there and slip a screen or cheese cloth over the top put her in the box and the bees will swarm around her.

History:

Bee hives will sometime hatch out another queen, sometime the old queen will be killed off, some time half or some of the bees will take up with one of the queens and they will fly off seeking a new place to make a hive.

Just from the hip, it seems a little small, but that sure looks like bees would swarm around the can to find there queen, it would be very full I think.

The trick then, if you have a swarm in a trap. put the queen in a new (empty) hive in the 'queen' box, and the rest will move in.

Second guess, hornet or wasp trap of some kind.

 

[iCreek]

To start off, I have never seen enything just like that. But it dose look like a contraption made to catch honey bees.

The little box is for the queen bee, put her in there and slip a screen or cheese cloth over the top put her in the box and the bees will swarm around her.

Hmm, I went back through my pictures, and think I see a dead bee in the small box trap top part. I think you might have nailed it ShoerFast... Interesting, I guess they made their own honey... What do you think?

 

[TreeBot]

Hmm, I went back through my pictures, and think I see a dead bee in the small box trap top part. I think you might have nailed it ShoerFast... Interesting, I guess they made their own honey... What do you think?

Yep. My grandpa bought queens from time to time and they came in a little box just like that.

 

[waterman]

funny it would take some alaska farmer dude to tell all you southerns what that is . growing up here in fairbanks alaska we could not over winter our honey bees so we had to kill them every fall (smoked them with sulphur). the next spring you ordered up 3# of bees for each hive you wanted. yes the little box is for the queen. the can had sugar water in it to keep the bees happy. i used to keep my white mice in them afterwards , till they ended up chewing thru it one nite and ended up in my folks bed. that was the end of the mice in the house.

 

[magna19]

it is a shipping crate for bees.they put sugar water mix in the tin and wire the queen inside the cage so she keeps her swarm together.

 

[Booshcat]

funny it would take some alaska farmer dude to tell all you southerns what that is . growing up here in fairbanks alaska we could not over winter our honey bees so we had to kill them every fall (smoked them with sulphur). the next spring you ordered up 3# of bees for each hive you wanted. yes the little box is for the queen. the can had sugar water in it to keep the bees happy. i used to keep my white mice in them afterwards , till they ended up chewing thru it one nite and ended up in my folks bed. that was the end of the mice in the house.

Thanks.....
nuff said

 

[AIM]

I love the pics of the old homestead. I live in a small but fairly new house that I built 14 years ago and many times I have told the wife that and old rundown and forgotten farmhouse way back in the middle of nowhere would actually be more desirable.
The problem is that she doesn't share this longing.

 

[Geez]

Yep, as has been said, it is a crate for shipping packages of bees. I have dozens of them around here. The bees don't survive over winter up here too well so I have to send for new colonies every spring.
The can is filled with syrup to feed them during shipping and the little box is the queen carrier. Usually there is a hole in the end of the carrier that is filled with hard sugar or 'candy'. When you install (dump) the bees out of the crate into the beehive, you leave the queen in her little prison. She smells different (from another hive) so the other bees want to kill her. By the time they eat the candy out of the hole to get to her, she has acquired their smell and is accepted into the hive,

 

[WesternSaw]

Old Farm

Hello iCreek
Thanks for sharing those pictures of the old farm.I think There's a 30-30 sticking out of one of the house windows.Reminds me of an old movie that I should watch again the Missouri Breaks with Brandon.Who owns the farm now?Is it just left to be overgrown and run down ,too bad if it is.
Lawrence

 

[Rookie1]

iCreek nice pics. There is alot of history sitting there. I love seeing how people used to live. Makes me appreciate my cush. Also makes me yearn for simpler times.

 

[iCreek]

Hello iCreek
Thanks for sharing those pictures of the old farm.I think There's a 30-30 sticking out of one of the house windows.Reminds me of an old movie that I should watch again the Missouri Breaks with Brandon.Who owns the farm now?Is it just left to be overgrown and run down ,too bad if it is.
Lawrence

Thanks, I might have to see if I can rent that movie sometime. The farm is still in the family, we just don't have much time or reason to go over there and do much, other than run cows in some of the pastures. We just enjoy going over and digging around, I found there old dump, two of them actually, as the log house was torn down years ago. I dig for old bottles and stuff like that.

Here are a few more pics, the driveway and some old finds.... the last pic is probably my best find other than a wiskey crock jug, perfect shape, a small fancy indian boy candy container.

 

[Adkpk]

+1 on "Missouri Breaks". Great pics iCreek, thanks.