1882 



GLEAl^lNGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



603 



seal up honey at 100° or less, and keep it; but they 

 do not pour it in a large stream into the cells, get- 

 ting the air all mixed up with it. I hope that man 

 may yet succeed in doing as well as the bees. Hon- 

 ey is never as good as when it comes fresh from the 

 comb. Standing one week exposed to the air makes 

 a perceptible difference in it. Granulated honey is 

 good, but it is not like honey from the comb. Liquid 

 honey, allowed to stand for weeks, is good; but it is 

 not just what it was when it came ripe from the 

 comb. Those people are not all dupes who insist 

 that comb honey is better than old extracted honey, 

 whether candied or liquid. What is desirable is, to 

 get some way of sealing up our honej' as soon as it 

 is extracted, and thus preserve its freshness and deli- 

 cacy of flavor. If one day, or at most two, of expo- 

 sure to the heat of the sun will suffice to expel the 

 air that we get mixed with it in handling (and my ex- 

 periments so far favor that belief), then we shall be 

 able to put into the market extracted honej' as pure 

 and fresh in its delicacy of flavor as the best comb 

 honey. 



Mr. Dadant says it will take work to put up seve- 

 ral tons in that way. He is right about that. But it 

 is work in a good cause. I rather think I should en- 

 joy it. But if we can do it by the heat of the sun, it 

 will not take so much work after all. 



Milroy, Pa., Nov. 13, 1882. J. W. White. 



HOAV I GET QUS:E:N-CE:iil.S. 



DOOHTTLE'S PLAN FOR GETTING GOOD ONES. 



M S one of the requisites for good queens is good 

 J^^_ queen-cells, I thought a few words about how 



' I get such cells might not be out of place. 



As I believe that queens reared under the impulse 

 of natural swarming are superior to those reared by 

 any other method, I will first tell how I manage to 

 get a supply of good cells, letting the bees carry out 

 their own wishes in the matter. When a very large 

 force of bees are present, it is self-evident that a 

 larger number of good queens can be reared than 

 could be done with less bees, and under less favora- 

 ble conditions. Hence a powerful colony preparing 

 to swarm can perfect from 15 to 20 cells, of the high- 

 est grade, just as easily as a three-frame nucleus 

 could 3. That those powerful colonies will often 

 swarm, and not give more than from three to five 

 queen-cells, was the reason I have experimented 

 with a view of increasing the number of cells, if 

 possible. Years ago I noticed that colonies having 

 all straight perfect combs give a less number of 

 cells than one whose combs are full of holes, and of 

 uneven surface. I also noticed that, when, in pre- 

 paring my bees for winter, I made holes through the 

 combs for winter-passages, the next season queen- 

 cells would be built in these passage-ways. So it 

 proved that all that is needed to get double the 

 number of cells generally built, is to cut plenty of 

 holes in the combs at the time the bees were prepar- 

 ing to swarm, or, what answers equally well, to place 

 one or two frames partly full of comb In the hive at 

 this time. But of late years we prize perfect combs 

 more than we previously did; and as the Hill device, 

 or something similar, does away with the winter- 

 passages, it became necessary to get tlie cells built 

 without being obliged to cut the combs, either for 

 places for building cells, or by cutting the cells out 

 In transferring. To accomplish this, I take a frame 

 an-J tack three or four bars inside of it, at equal 



distances apart, the bars being of the same dimen- 

 sions as the top-bars to the frame, only they are not 

 so long. On the under side of those strips, or bars, 

 I fasten, by means of melted wax, strips of old re- 

 fuse comb; and when the proper times arrives, place 

 such prepared frames in the center of the colony from 

 wish I wish to raise queens, In this way I general- 

 ly get from 15 to 25 splendid cells, and have them in 

 such shape that I can cut them out without molest- 

 ing the other combs in the hive. Another plan, 

 which is still more sure, and gives a required number 

 of cells almost to a certainty, is this: From the time 

 fruit-trees bloom till swarming commences, the bees 

 will be starting queen-cups, or embryo queen-cells. 

 Now as I am at work at the bees, I have a little dish 

 along with me; and as I come across these rudiment- 

 ary queen-cells, I take them off so as to not injure 

 the combs, and place them in the dish. These are 

 stuck to the under side of the comb in our prepared 

 frame, by dipping the base of the cups in melted 

 wax, and pressing them on the comb while hot. Up- 

 on setting such a frame in the hive, the bees will 

 soon fix all up in proper shape for the queen to lay 

 in, and we have the required number of cells in just 

 such shape as we wish them. 



If I wish more queens than I can get in this way, 

 the next best plan, as I consider it, is to proceed as 

 above in preparing the frame, after which I go to 

 my best colony and get a piece of comb coutainingr 

 little larvte just hatched. Shave off the cells down 

 to within one-eighth of an inch of the base of the 

 comb, when, with a goose-quill toothpick, curved at 

 the end, these little larvse are easily lifted from 

 where they are, and placed in the queen-cups, in our 

 prepared frame. Twenty-four hours previously to 

 this I have taken the queen away from a powerful 

 colony, and now all the brood is taken from them, 

 and this frame of cells, supplied with little larvae, is 

 set in the hive, together with two or three frames 

 containing plenty of pollen and honey. Within six 

 hours, if we examine we shall find our little larvte 

 floating in an abundance of royal jelly, the same as 

 they would have done if they had been intended for 

 queens from the start. The above is the plan I 

 adopt to get nearly all my queens. 



THE ALLEY PLAN. 



I see by reading an article from friend J. E. Pond, 

 in Sept. Kansas Bee-Keeper, that Mr. Alley, of Wen- 

 ham, Mass., has a plan of getting queen-cells, differ- 

 ent from any of the plans before the public, by 

 which he secures all his cells built in straight rows, 

 at equal distances apart, and in full colonies, which 

 are never queenless. Upon writing Mr. Pond, he 

 further states that all cells are perfect, and each one 

 is sure to give a perfect queen. Mr. Alley has been 

 in the queen business a long time, and his experi- 

 ence would be of great value to the public; there- 

 fore I was glad to have friend Pond write that Mr. 

 A. was about to give his plans of getting queen- 

 cells, in the shape of a book, telling all how ho 

 raises queens, iutroduces virgin queens to nuclei, 

 and many other things never before given to the 

 public. Of one thing I am convinced; which is, that 

 a queen-cell perfected in a hive having a laying 

 mother brings forth a better queen than one bi-ought 

 forth by a queenless colony, as is proven by queens 

 reared by natural swarming; and in such cases as 

 superseding of queens, two queens in a hive, etc. If 

 Mr. Alley has a plan by which he can do all Mr. Pond 

 says he can, and still have a laying queen in the 



