92 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



March 



ened to the top of the packages, so the 

 bees could cluster around the cages. 

 Twenty of these I placed in hives con- 

 taining frames of empty combs, a few 

 of them containing a little honey. Some 

 were hives in which the bees had died 

 last winter. 



As the weather was warm the bees 

 went right to work on the fruit bloom, 

 and I did not find is necessary to give 

 any feed, only what little honey there 

 was in the combs. As an experiment 

 I placed the other five in hives contain- 

 ing only full sheets of foundation and 

 gave no feed. In a day or two I exam- 

 ined and found all the queens laying 

 but two, which were missing. I wrote 

 to the dealer and he immediately sent 

 me two queens to replace those that 

 were lost. 



This was a great satisfaction to me. 

 The colonies built up fast, and on June 



25 I gave comb-honey supers to the 20 

 that had been hived on empty combs. 

 The clover flow came about this time. 

 They went right to work in the supers, 

 and on July 5 I found it necessary to 

 add another super on all but one of 

 these. One colony swarmed on July 4, 

 and as I had clipped the queens,! found 

 and caged her and placed the cage in a 

 new hive containing full sheets of foun- 

 dation, which, after removing the old 

 hive, I placed on the same stand, and 

 the bees ran in and took possession. 



Fifteen colonies finished two supers 

 each, and four; Df them finished three 

 supers, and each super contained 28 

 sections. The five that were placed on 

 full sheets of foundation made very 

 little surplus honey, but built up well 

 and took in plenty of honey for winter 

 stores. So I have from the investment 



26 colonies of bees in good condition 

 for winter, and enough surplus honey 

 to pay for the first cost of the 25 pound 

 packages of bees. Figuring the 26 colo- 

 nies at $5.00 each gives me $130 for my 

 work besides the experience which is 

 worth something. 



Lowville, N. Y. 



a sheet of foundation is inserted and 

 comb drawn out to augment the capac- 

 ity and storage room of the nucleus. In 

 times of dearth, or when stimulative 

 feeding is advisable, feed can be daily 



Some Ingenious Appliances in 

 a Queen Yard 



BY E. G. LE STOURGEON. 



MR. B. M. CARAWAY, of Mathis, 

 Tex., has an interesting system 

 on queen-rearing and mating. 

 The nucleus or mating-hive is one-half 

 the size of a 5Ji-inch ideal super. The 

 frames are made by cutting an ordinary 

 shallow extracting frame in half and 

 using two more end-bars to complete 

 the two frames. One advantage of this 

 size of hive and frame is the ease 

 with which it is possible to have combs 

 built in a regular hive and stores of 

 honey, pollen and brood secured for 

 the use of the nuclei of mating hives. 



For this purpose a super is divided 

 into two equal compartments by a 

 transverse bar with a beespace at the 

 bottom and low enough from the edge 

 of the super at the top to provide a rest 

 for the end-bars of the 20 half frames. 

 Figure 2 shows a super thus equipped 

 with 16 frames and 4 division-board 

 feeders. 



As shown in Fig. 3, they are more 

 than feeders. The block used for a 

 top-bar is of two-inch material plowed 

 out like the hand grip on the ends of 

 hives. Below this block, for the re- 

 tnaining few inches of the frame depth, 



Fig. I —One of Caraway's Mating Hives 



Fig. 2.— Super for Surplus Honey, Divid- 

 ed FOR Queen Rearing 



poured into the groove at the top 

 through a hole left in the inner cover 

 of the hive for the purpose. The cells 

 are reared in strong colonies, in remov- 

 able wooden cell-cups. 



Two ingenious devices used by Mr. 

 Caraway struck me as being of pecu- 

 liar interest. The first of these is what 

 he calls his " safety valve," and the 

 other he styles " the incubator." They 

 are both shown plainly in Figs. 1 and 3. 

 The safety valve is the entrance device. 

 The mating hives have no entrances at 

 the ends, but entrances are bored U- 

 inch holes in opposite corners of the 

 hive-body. A small block also having 

 a 3;j.'.inch hole in one end is nailed just 

 above, so that it can be swung around. 

 Thus the entrance can be wholly or 

 partially closed or left open at will. A 

 small square of queen-excluding zinc 

 is nailed across the hole in the "door" 

 or swinging block, and when this block 

 is placed so that the hole in it engages 

 the entrance of the hive it prevents the 

 issuance of the queen. Thus, as soon 

 as the young queen is mated the " safety 

 valve" can be closed and the queen- 

 breeder is sure that a swarm will not 

 issue. 



The indicator is as simple as the 

 safety valve. It is an arrowhead — 

 shaped piece of thin wood. Those I 

 saw were made of one-half the side of 

 an ordinary section, sharpened at one 

 end. They are fastened with a small 

 nail driven in tightly, but which per- 

 mits the indicator to be swung around 

 in a circle. The position of the sharp 

 end or "hand" shows the condition of 

 the hive. The arc of the circle is 

 divided into sections similar to the 

 points of a compass, each section indi- 

 cating a step in the progress of queen- 

 rearing within the nucleus. 



This system saves unnecessary open- 

 ing of the hives to determine their con- 

 dition. Upon visiting the mating yards 

 a glance will suffice to show what hives 

 need attention and what is to be done 

 with each of them. The finger of the 

 indicator tells it all instantly. It can 

 be moved about more quickly than a 

 memorandum could be made, and as it 

 is a permanent part of every mating 

 hive it cannot be misplaced. 



San Antonio, Tex. 



Fig. 3.— Feeder Frames 



Note indicators on the nucleus entrance 



below 



Problems of Bee-Inspection 



BY FRANK C. PELLETT. 



I MUST confess that I have modified 

 my views concerning bee-inspec- 

 tion each year of the five that I 

 have served as State Inspector of Api- 

 aries of Iowa. New difl5culties pre- 

 sented themselves each season while 

 some of the former ones became sim- 

 plified. I have at last concluded that 

 we have been working along wrong 

 lines and that the plan now in opera- 

 tion in most States is not calculated 

 to bring the best results, with the small 

 appropriations available. 



In the beginning, the appearance of 

 foulbrood diseases was a matter of 

 grave concern to the beekeeper. Little 

 was known about either form and 

 methods of control were not certainly 

 understood. Practical men had found 

 that by removing. the bees to the new 

 and clean hive and destroying the old 

 combs, including brood and honey, the 

 infection was frequently eradicated. 



The beekeepers were poorly organ- 

 ized and were slow in bringing their 



