702 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



The top application of the "Swarthmore" pressed queeii cups 

 was explained and the many labor-saving points of a flange cup were 

 set forth by demonstration. 



The process of waxing the cups, pressing the cells and grafting 

 them without royal jelly was gone through with and numerous ques- 

 tions from the floor were answered. The use of the Swarthmore 

 open-top holding-frames and the manner of applying cell-bars, in- 

 cubating and confining cages to them through slits in the shqets, 

 from the tops of the hives, without disturbance to the bees, was also 

 demonstrated, and the simplicity and labor-saving points of each 

 carefully set out. 



The speaker then branched into the wholesale possibilities of the 

 Swarthmore plan, showing how large numbers of queen cells may 

 be secured and cared for. 



A number of small cups, set side by side in a little frame, so as to 

 resemble a comb in which the breeding queen will deposit eggs to 

 save the long process of grafting by hand, attracted considerable at- 

 tention and brought forth much comment and many questions. It 

 was shown how these little cups, each containing an egg, could be 

 drawn from the frame, slipped into holding-shells and given to the 

 bees for queen-rearing, and how other cups could be replaced in the 

 frame for future use in cell getting. 



Previous to his explanation of the miniature mating boxes, the 

 speaker quoted from his book, "Baby Nuclei," the following words 

 of introduction: 



"It was in 1SS1 that I first began to experiment with section-box 

 nuclei for mating queens. Some three or four years later the plan 

 I had been commercially successful with was published in the 

 journals of that day and in pamphlet form, under the title of 

 'Pratt's New r System of Nuclei Management.' Never to this day 

 have I to any extent used more than a handful of bees in a little box 

 for the sole purpose of making my queens. My little baby-mating 

 boxes have been condemned by nearly all the professionals, in- 

 cluding Mr. Alley, in whose yard I had the pleasure of studying 

 with profit for some three or four seasons. In the face of all this 

 opposition I have clung to my little mating boxes and have improved 

 them from year to year, until we now have what is called the 

 'Ideal.' Time and time again have I called attention to the woeful 

 waste of bees, labor and material by the older mating methods — but 

 I could get no hearing. until a recent year. It so happened that I 

 succeeded in mating a large number of queens from little boxes fitted 

 into frames and hung on stakes, also attached in different ways to 

 the sides of hives. My description of these experiments was ad 

 mitted in part to 'Gleanings in Bee Culture,' which renewed in- 

 terest in small mating nuclei, and the question now seems to com- 

 mand wide interest because of the wondrous saving in expense over 

 any other method of queen mating." 



In opening the queen-mating question the speaker said that twenty- 

 five bees will mate a queen. Fifty will do it better, but more than 

 a small teacupful is a positive disadvantage. The design of the 

 Swarthmore mating nucleus box was shown, and the manner of 

 hanging them to little T stands driven into the ground together with 

 the manner employed to supply them with small combs and storing 



