1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



629 



new. You know I bave # been experimenting for a 

 number of years with queen-nurseries, and never 

 fully succeeded in getting one that suited me. The 

 little tin incubators I made four or five years ago 

 work very well, but I am always worrying for fear 

 they will set the building on Are. But the other day 

 T hit upon a nursery that works to perfection, and 

 here it is. 



manum's queen-cell, pkotector. 



" Simply a frame tilled with little boxes which 

 have a wire-cloth cover. You see, my frame takes 

 just 33 of them, but I prefer a half-frame holding 

 lfi, like this one. All you have to do is to hang the 

 cells on these tin points, and hang the frame in an 

 upper story in place of a comb, and let the queens 

 hatch; or if you prefer you jan hang the nursery 

 in the body of the hive under the sections, but it is 

 handier to get at in an upper story. I have now 

 eight of these nurseries filled with cells, in my 

 home apiary, and one to each of the other apiaries. 

 I am making more as fast as I can, so all can have 

 five or six. 



" I want you to be sure to discard all queens over 

 one year old, unless you have one or two very extra 

 good two-year-olds that you will want to breed from 

 next season. I am thoroughly determined not to 

 winter any queens older than one year." 



" Well, that is just what I am doing; and you will 

 find I have not increased the number of colonies in 

 this yard very much. When a two-year-old queen 

 swarmed out I killed her and let the swarm go back, 

 and I kept the cells cut out until they had nothing 

 to raise a queen from; and now I am giving them 

 virgin queens as fast as I can hatch them; and by 

 giving them plenty of room in the boxes T find they 

 work quite as well, but more especially after I have 

 given them a queen." 



" Yes, after you give them a queen they carry up 

 the uncapped honey from below to make room for 

 the queen to lay. I am teaching Scott and Fred 

 this year how to run them in this way— especially 

 those colonies that have oast a swarm— by keeping 

 the queen-cells all cut out until the brood is too old 

 to build more; and in lti to 18 days after the swarm 

 issued, give them a virgin queen. There is no dan- 

 ger then of second swarms, and it is a very easy 



way to requeen an apiary from choice stock; and 

 by the help of these nurseries it will now be noth- 

 ing but fun to hatch queens. Well, 1 have made 

 you quite a visit; and as 1 see nothing out of order 

 here, I will hitch up old Bill and start for home." 

 Bristol, Vt. A. E. Manum. 



We are interested in your bee-candy. We 

 suspect that one of the elements which 

 contributes to the success of your candy is 

 glycerine. It is this, doubtless, that keeps 

 it soft so long. Just now we are making the 

 Good (or Scholz) candy as follows. We se- 

 lect some of the very nicest alsike or bass- 

 wood honey that we have in stock. This 

 we heat until it becomes quite thin. To 

 this we add confectioners' powdered sugar, 

 and knead it into a stiff dough. But this 

 candy, if allowed to stand awhile, will run 

 and become soft. To prevent this we add 

 common powdered sugar, kneading it over 

 to make as stiff a dough as possible. We 

 have found that a mixture of the two su- 

 gars gives better results than either one 

 alone, and our losses in bees and queens 

 sent out have been reduced to a very con- 

 siderable extent, so that now we scarcely 

 have reports of bees dying, even during hot 

 dry weather, most unfavorable for shipping 

 bees. Well, now, may be your candy is bet- 

 ter yet. We are going to give it a test at 

 any rate. — We received your sample queen- 

 cell protector, and instructed our engravers 

 to make a full-sized engraving of it. The 

 tin which supports the cell is shown in front 

 of the cage. It is passed through the little 

 slot shown on the top of the cage. The wire 

 cloth is made to slide in a groove, so the 

 hatched queen may be easily taken out and 

 another cell put in the place of the one now 

 empty. The principle of the queen-cell pro- 

 tector is about the same as that illustrated 

 and described on page 201 of Alley's Bee- 

 keeper's Handy Book ; and, as nearly as we 

 can judge, Alley's queen-cell protectors are 

 used very much on the same plan. Such a 

 queen-hatcher works well, and we have 

 tried them considerably. 



MUD-WASPS, SNAKES. 



fRIEND COOK:— I send you to-day a nest which 

 I first thought was a wasp's nest; but on in- 

 vestigation I found it full of spiders. I found 

 it in the upper part of a hive. Will you kind- 

 ly describe it in Gleanings? 

 Fremont, Mich., July 2, 1889. W. E. Gould. 



Prof. Cook replies : 



The nest is that of the mud-wasp, probably some 

 species of Sphnx. These wasps have long ped uncled 

 abdomens, and are interesting in that they do not 

 kill the insects which they furnish to their yet un- 

 hatched larvse. I have often found live spiders 

 entombed in these clay sepulchers. The wasp par- 

 alyzes the insect, spider, etc., places it in the mud 

 cell, lays an egg on it, and seals all with clay. When 

 the wasp egg hatches, the young or larval wasp 

 feeds on the still living food prepared by its parent. 



COPPERHEAD SNAKES. 



T wish to thank Gleanings, for through it I have 

 received from J. R. Atchley, Arlington, Texas, a 

 beautiful copperhead. This, though very poison- 

 ous, is really one of the most beautiful of American 



