18U3 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



843 



this subject? Regarding propolis, bees do not going on with the work in the super. At the 



produce it at all, but simply gather it from the same time, it does away with introducing 



resinous exudations of certain plants or trees, queens in requeening, as they are already intro- 



ntiH frnm n]f\ hivp« ptt- wliore it. hns hppn ni'P- rlin'tiH T'lin i-rvunrr ,^. ,«,.>, ic ..,^.,..^,-1 n,^r\ +v..f;l_ 



and from old hives, etc., where it has been pre 

 viously placed by other bees. The tree known 

 as the balm-of-gilead, and the horse-chestnut, 

 give the most of the propolis gathered here, the 

 buds being well covered with tliis resin during 

 the preater part of the summer season. 

 Borodino. N. Y. G. M. Doolittle. 



TWO QUEENS TO ONE COLONY. 



TO MAKE A SUCCESS OF IT ; AN INGEN- 

 IOUS WAY OF REARING QUEENS. 



In Gleanings for Sept. 15, we have an arti- 

 cle from Mr. B. Taylor. Forestville, Miiiii..in 

 which he informs us that he is working on a 

 system of manipulation to prevent swarming. 

 He then proceeds to condemn the Langdon 

 device, and tell us of his " more excellent way." 

 He tells us that he keeps two queens in the 

 same hive, separated by wire gauze, the bees 

 accepting both queens, etc. Now comes the 

 claim that this is his discovery, and that he 

 will keep himself prot^fted legally in its use, 

 etc. Now, the brother is simply misinformed. 

 There are other bee-keepers who have made 

 the same discovery, and have been making use 

 of it for some time — myself for one. I keep two 

 queens in every colony, from early spring until 

 I go into winter quarters — not, however, for the 

 same purpose that Mr. T. does, but for various 

 other purposes; and in place of wire gauze I 

 use zinc with front and rear entrances. I will 

 send you a sketch of my device, with explana- 

 tions, etc. 



Now, Mr. Root, we can't afford to allow one 

 man to grab more than belongs to him without 

 entering our protest, even if, as he tells us, he 

 is inspired by a higher motive. The fact that 

 two or more queens can be kept in the same 

 hive, separated from each other, and that the 

 bees will accept them all. has been known for 

 some time; and for one man to claim it as his 

 discovery, and send legal notice on us to " keep 

 off the grass," is just a little too thin. I will 

 just say that I am not working on a non- 

 swarmer — don't want one, as I have never been 

 troubled with too much swarming; but I hope 

 that Mr. Taylor may succeed with his machine 

 so that others who need them may have them; 

 neither do 1 object to his patent on his hive or 

 device — that is all right enough, but to his in- 

 tended monopoly of using two or more queens 

 in one colony, which would work a hardship on 

 others that he has no right to inflict. 



My device for queen-rearing, etc., consists of 

 a comb-basket attached to the rear of the hive, 

 holding two or more frames crosswise of the 

 main hive, and same size as in the main 

 hive, with rear entrance to basket, and fas- 

 tened by a cleat on each side screwed to both 

 hive and basket. You will see by the sketch 

 that the main hive is drawn back over the bot- 

 tom-board an inch, so the bees can go down over 

 the bottom-board to the bottom -board of the 

 comb-basket, then through a strip of perforat- 

 ed zinc into the comb-basket, and out at the 

 rear entrance. This keeps the queens apart 

 while the workers pass back and forth, using 

 both entrances at will. The sides and bottom 

 of the comb- basket are made to project under 

 the back of the hive, to fill up all the space, the 

 comb-basket having two sides, with back end 

 and permanent bottom-board and entrance. 

 This gives you an idea of its 'construction. It 

 does away with making nuclei in queen-rear- 

 ing, as every hive is a nucleus, and every nu- 

 cleus has a full colony to back it, the colony 



duced. The young queen is reared, and fertil- 

 ized from the comb-basket, and remains there 

 until sold or used. It rushes brood-rearing by 



H. I, cover; C. cleat; D, F, doors, showing end of zine strip, 

 E, entrance ; dots show end of zinc strip. A, side view of main 

 hive witti coinbbaslcet. 



MITCHELL'S QUEEN-REARING COMB-BASKET. 



trading combs of brood for empty ones as need- 

 ed. You have at all times an extra queen for 

 each hive, so if one fails all you have to do is to 

 take your young queen out of the basket, comb 

 and all, and set it in the main hive, and while 

 you can change queens back and forth at will. 

 If you take the queen from the basket the bees 

 will very readily raise another, provided they 

 liave the larvte in the basket to make one of. 

 The zinc strip should run entirely through 

 from side to side of basket, and should be 1>^ 

 inches wide, so the basket sits that much lower 

 than the main hive. I use Root's ^(^ zinc, as I 

 think it is just right. While it lets the workers 

 through all right, not more than one queen in a 

 hundred gets through. 



This gives you an idea of the principle of the 

 device, so any one wanting to try it can vary it 

 to suit. My hives are square, so I use it on the 

 back. It could be used on the side with en- 

 trance on back end. I should like others to try 

 it, and report. There is no patent or " higher 

 motive " about it. A. C. Mitchell. 



Enfield, 111., Oct. 13. 



[Friend M., you are just a "leetle" bit hard 

 on Mr. Taylor. If you could but be acquainted 

 with him you would know that he is not selfish 

 or grasping, whatever his published statements 

 might indicate. We do not understand that he 

 claims the idea of two queens in a hive except 

 in combination with the non-swarming idea. 

 Whether he is original in this remains to be 

 proven. 



Regarding your queen-rearing basket we be- 

 lieve you have a good and practicable device 

 for certain seasons of the year. It is not orig- 

 inal with you probably, because both Dr. 

 Tinker and G. M. Doolittle have been working 

 along these lines. Both of their plans are de- 

 scribed in detail in their books, published some 

 three years ago. Rearing a queen in connec- 

 tion with a full colony already having a laying 

 queen, if we may judge from" reports, has not 

 proven to be an entire success. They were too 

 liable to be killed by the same bees that were 

 too loyal to their old queen-mother. When 

 honey is coming freely, bees will tolerate con- 

 ditions not allowed during a dearth, and hence 

 sometimes plans will work when at others they 

 will not. We should like to hear, not only from 



