]'K)1 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



11 



There are probahly nnny oth- 

 er useful amateurs ; but from the 

 foregoing the amateur bee-kefp- 

 er shows up well for usefulness. 

 May he continue to bless the 



frateriiitv. 



—• -•— 



QUEEN-REARING IN FRANCE. 



Following American Methods ; 314 



Queens from One Hive; How 



it was Done. 



BY GIRAUD-PABOU. 



I began bee culture in 1889. 

 In 1892 I adopted the Dadant 

 hive, a hive with frames 11)^X 

 16>^, 12 frames in a hive. In 

 1893 I harvested an average of 

 66 lbs. per colony. One hive 

 gave us a crop of 143 lbs. It was 

 then that I began to see the ad- 

 vantage of selecting breeders for 

 queen-rearing. We subscribed 

 to the Revue hiteruatiotiale, of 

 Bertrand, bought the " Hive and 

 Honey-bee, "and also subscribed 

 for the British Bee Journal, 

 which one of my sons was able 

 to read. We finally dropped 

 this paper to take Gleanings, 

 and it was in the last-named 

 magazine that we found our new 

 method of queen-rearing, taken 

 from different writers. 



FIG. 2. — DOOLITTLE CELL-BUILDING ; LATER ATTEMPTS. 



FIG. 1. — DOOLITTLE CELL-BUILDING; FIBST ATTEMPT. 



The past spring we tested sev- 

 eral colonies to ascertain which 

 one vvas most likely to raise a 

 great number of queen-cells. 

 The colony selected was placed 

 in a hive holding 18 large 

 frames, and divided in two by 

 a partition of perforated zinc 

 10 keep the queen out of the 

 compartment in which the 

 fjueen cells were to be reared. 

 The cells were made of artifi- 

 cial cups by the Doolittle meth- 

 od, with larvae 24 hours old, 

 ami each provided with a little 

 royal jelly, as we had noticed 

 that they were less readily ac- 

 cepted when they were not pro- 

 vided with any jelly. The 

 queen - rearing compartment 

 was divided as follows: Against 

 the perforr.ted zinc, one comb 

 of brood, next to this the frame 

 upon which are fastened the 

 sla's bearing the cell-cups, as in 

 ti:e cut sent first, eighteen or 

 twenty cells in two rows ; next 

 to this another comb of brood, 

 then another frame bearing on 

 five slals the cell cups taken 

 from frame No. 2 as fast as 

 they are sealed, each slat being 

 numbered to take the cells in 

 regular order. See photos sent 

 \Aith this letter. The fifth frame 

 is again brood, and the others 



