58 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



February 



would not need a translation. How- 

 ever, if you get by the Editor it is all 

 right with me. Frank C. Pellett. 



[Evidently the misunderstanding 

 comes from my having quoted Mr. 

 Pellett in the manner mentioned by 

 our old friend Dr. Bonney, for this 

 matter on page 414 is of my own writ- 

 ing. As they are both good-natured in 

 their banter, the reader will enjoy it, 

 for the question of margarine rs. glu- 

 cose is interesting in their relation 

 with butter 7's. honey. — Editor.] 



Bees in Banks 



BY BURTON N. GATES. 



THERE seems to be a current of 

 simultaneous originality among 

 banking concerns in the use of 

 honeybees as an advertising medium. 

 The American Bee Journal in Novem- 

 ber, page 387, shows the window dis- 

 play of a Chicago bank wherein bees 

 are used to typify those desirable sav- 

 ing qualities which should be culti- 

 vated by the human race. As this dis- 

 play attracted large crowds of inter- 

 ested spectators, so a similar bank win- 

 dow attracted thousands in Springfield, 

 Mass., during the National Dairy Show 

 Oct. 12 to 21. This neat display was 

 made by the Commercial Trust Com- 

 pany, the material being furnished by 

 A. H. McCarter, of Springfield. 



One emphatic lesson taught is ex- 

 pressed on the card in the show win- 

 dow, "Take a lesson from the honey- 

 bee. Store up a little something each 

 week in this bankforthe future." Else- 

 where in the window display were 

 numerous home-saving safes which 

 were linked to the general exhibit by 

 this legend, "These little banks are to 

 you what the honeycomb is to the bee. 

 One dollar opens an interest account 

 here." Another legend is, " An exam- 

 ple for you, the bees believe in prepar- 

 edness." 



The bank also cordially inserted a 

 card advising those interested in bees 

 to visit the Massachusetts Board of 

 Agriculture display of beekeeping ma- 

 terials, honey and bees, at the State 

 Building on the Exposition grounds, 

 where the National Dairy Show was 

 held. 



Amherst, Mass. 



When to Requeen 



BY F. M. PERRY. 



I WOULD not requeen in proximity 

 to the main honey flow, whether it 

 be just before, just after, or during 

 the flow. Before or during the flow 

 the colonies are populous, queens are 

 hard to find, and no colonies would 

 have their honey production increased 

 by bees hatching from the new queen 

 later on.- 



After the honey flow is the better 

 time, though this tends to increase the 

 strength of colonies after the need for 

 bees to gather is past. Besides the 

 chances of the queen being killed in 

 introduction are gi eater. The bee- 

 keeper also runs the risk of loss of 

 some good queens during winter and 

 before their qualities have been tested. 

 The foregoing applies of course to 

 queenright colonies. Queenless colo- 



nies should be requeened as soon as 

 found. 



But the best time of all to requeen is 

 early in the spring. Why? First, be- 

 cause by putting a good queen in a col- 

 ony that has a poor one, or only a 

 medium one, two months or more be- 

 fore the honey flow, the beekeeper gets 

 a good force of workers, quite often 

 double the number he would have had 

 with the old queen, and so a larger 

 crop of honey. Second, you still have 

 the young queen of improved strain 

 with which to improve your stock 

 later, if desired ; and third, you can 

 make the introduction when the old 

 queens are easily found, and when 

 nearly every queen will be accepted. 



Then, another thing, you can test 

 your queen for the honey-gathering 



qualities of her bees, for her breeding 

 ability, and the gentleness of her work- 

 ers, within so short a time that you can 

 be sure that any defect that may show 

 is in the queen herself. 



A large amount of honey goes un- 

 gathered every year, because the poor- 

 est colony is not as strong as the best. 

 Why not have them all best ? It is an 

 old saying among beemen, that the col- 

 ony that gives the big yield this year 

 will not do much next year. Why ? Is 

 it not because the queen has done so 

 well that the bees do not see the need 

 of superseding her at the end of the 

 honey flow ? It is not the number of 

 bees you have in the apiary, but the 

 number you have in each colony that 

 counts when you come to the main 

 honey flow. Bradentown, Fla. 



Convention ^ Proceedings 



Queen-Rearing for Northern Latitudes 



The results of a very interesting series 

 of experiments in queen-rearing at the 

 the University at Madison, Wis., was 

 reported in a paper read by Mr, C. W. 

 Aeppler, at the Wisconsin meeting. Mr. 

 Aeppler is specializing in bee-culture 

 at the University, and had charge of 

 the queen rearing last summer. 



In the North the same methods of 

 queen-rearing as in the South will not 

 apply owing to the climate. The nights 

 and even the days are cool up to June 

 15, and even later. Mr. Aeppler found 

 that the Doolittle method of having 

 cells built was not so successful for 

 him in early spring as the Alley or Dr. 

 Miller methods. 



CHOOSING THE CELL-BUILDERS. 



Not all colonies are equally as val- 

 uable as cell-builders. Out of bO colo- 

 nies only six proved good cell builders. 

 Of these, two were especially valuable 

 for the proportion of cells built. Both 

 of these had queens of the previous 

 August, and both were reared from the 

 same mother. His conclusions were 

 that the cell-building colonies should 

 be carefully chosen from colonies hav- 

 ing young and vigorous queens. This 

 would also minimize the attempts at 

 swarming of such colonies. 



MANAGEMENT OF CELL BUILDERS. 



The colonies chosen were stimulated 

 both by feeding and by the addition of 

 sealed brood to get them as strong as 

 possible. When ready to have cells 

 built, all of the sealed brood and most 

 of the bees were placed in an upper 

 story with a queen-excluder between. 

 Between the upper and lower stories 

 was also placed an escape-board, partly 

 of screen wire, with the escape oppo- 

 site to the usual method, so that the 

 bees could go above, but none go back. 

 The object of the screen is to give the 

 bees above as much warmth as possi- 

 ble, while Mr. Aeppler finds that with 

 the escape placed as indicated, he gets 

 a few young bees to go upward and 

 help strengthen the colony. 



The entrance of the cell-building 

 upper story is a one-inch hole on the 

 back side of the hive. This allows the 



old bees to return at once to the old 

 front entrance, leaving only young bees 

 in the cell builder. The small entrance 

 also helps retain the warmth and pre- 

 vents robbing. Mr. Aeppler stated that 

 often the bees would cluster all over 

 the back of the hive during cell build- 

 ing. 



Both stories were fed stimulatively 

 when necessary, with an Alexander 

 feeder, and more sealed brood was 

 continually added to the cell builder as 

 the season advanced. Cells were read- 

 ily accepted in any kind of weather. 



THE CELL CUPS. 



Experiments were made with differ- 

 ent sized artificial cell-cups, and on a 

 large number of colonies. Cells seven- 

 sixteenths of an inch in diameter and 

 three-fourths to one inch in length 

 were the most readily accepted and 

 most promptly capped. This is the cell- 

 cup size before being given to the bees 

 for 15 or 20 minutes for polishing be- 

 fore inserting the royal jelly and eggs. 



COVERS FOR CELL BUILDERS. 



The hive cover for all cell-building 

 colonies is made in sections so that the 

 frame of cells may be placed or re- 

 moved with as little disturbance to the 

 colony as possible. 



Cells are left in the cell builder for 

 about 24 hours, when they are placed 

 in other colonies for finishing. 



No success was had with baby nu- 

 clei. Mr. Aeppler now uses regular 

 10 frame hives partitioned off to make 

 three nuclei with entrances on differ- 

 ent sides of the hive. Thirteen to 20 

 cells are given to each colony. At least 

 90 percent of the cells given are ac- 

 cepted. 



We quote an interesting passage ver- 

 batim, concerning the greater or less 

 readiness of bees and other beings for 

 rearing their young : 



"The number and value of the queen- 

 cells that can be secured by the bee- 

 keeper depends entirely upon the cell 

 builders. This is the writer s conclu- 

 sion after two years of experimenting 

 on this particular point. ,^We have all 



