Carrier

Description

A Shaker craftsman, possibly a member of the New Lebanon, New York Shaker community, made this bentwood queen bee catcher around 1850. This box is comprised of three parts: a bottom container, which holds a honeycomb, a top container with a round window, and a middle section with a slider that can be moved to reveal or conceal an opening between the two containers. A beekeeper could catch the queen bee and hold her in the bottom container. Attracted to light from the window in the top section, she could be isolated when the slider over the aperture in the middle section was opened. The window on this box is made of "isinglass," a historical term for thin, transparent sheets of mineral mica also used for windows in stoves and lanterns.