7-54 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



scribed the Loolittle device as above. Lat- 

 er, having tested them, we gave a report 

 as to their workings. This report was rath- 

 er unfavorable. Luring the latter part of 

 this summer we have been using them 

 again ; and where colonies seem determined 

 to tear down cells, they are no doubt a good 

 thing. Our Mr. Spafford says he does not 

 know how we could get along without them, 

 in some cases. When we first tried them, 

 they seemed to be more the cause of cells 

 being torn down than an actual protection ; 

 but we now know that we did not insert the 

 cells properly. Some of the readers may 

 have forgotten just what these protectors 

 are, and I here reproduce an engraving 

 which we gave a couple of years ago. 



THE DOOLITTLE (JUEEN-CELL PROTECTOR. 



To put in the cell, insert it so that the 

 apex will close the mouth of the protector. 

 It should also retreat a little from the out- 

 side edge. Twist the strands of the four 

 corners together, and push it down between 

 the brood combs. When bees tear down 

 cells they usually make a hole in the side, 

 and rarely attack the end of the cell where 

 the queen gnaws out. As the bees can not 

 get at the sides of the cells, the queen is al- 

 lowed to hatch when she pleases. One very 

 pleasant thing about these cages is the fact 

 that a cell in one of them is protected from 

 the careless handling of the apiarist. It 

 can be crowded down between the combs, 

 and when the hive is opened again after the 

 lapse of a couple of days, to see if the cell is 

 hatched, the frames can be pulled apart 

 without danger of tearing open the cell. 

 The protector can be lifted out ; if the cell 

 is not yet hatched, it can be reinserted be- 

 tween the combs. 



A QUEEN - EXCLUDING HONEY -BOARD AS 

 AN ANTI-SWARMER, Oli (HJEEN-TRAP. 



On page 637 of the issue for Aug. 1, in my 

 answer in the Question-Box department, I 

 incidentally mentioned the fact that we had 

 been using a queen - excluding honey- 

 board between the brood-nest and the bot- 

 tom-board, for the purpose of preventing 

 the queen from going forth with the swarm. 

 Although the idea was original with me, I 

 did not at the time so state it, because I felt 

 quite sure that some one else had antedated 

 me iti something so obviously simple and 

 suggestive, in the style of a hive such as the 

 Dovetailed. By an article which we pub- 

 lish on page 66y you will see that Mr. James 

 Ileddon tried the same thing in 1NS4, or ear- 

 lier. Since that time Mr. .lohn II. Howard, 

 of Holme, near Peterboro, England, a sup- 

 ply-dealer, and a well known writer for the 

 British Bee Journal, writes that we have 

 been using the honey-board in the combina- 

 tion above named, without giving him cred- 

 it, and says that he used the same thing in 



1886, and has since been granted a patent 

 on it in Great Britain, and intimates that 

 he may patent it in the United States. If 

 friend Howard will turn to page 669 he will 

 see that Mr. Ileddon has antedated him by 

 two years, which entirely sets aside his get- 

 ting *a patent on the same in the United 

 States ; and, if I am not mistaken, it would 

 render the one in Great Britain useless so 

 far as giving him the exclusive use of it is 

 concerned. Now, I should not be at all 

 surprised if some one had used the same 

 idea earlier than 1884. I do not bring this 

 thing up here to provoke controversy, but 

 simply to show that, when we think we 

 are original in a thing, we are pretty apt to 

 be mistaken in these days of progressive 

 bee culture. Please read our comment in 

 reply to A. A. Eradenburg's article, in an- 

 other column, in regard to priority and ear- 

 ly use of raising queen-cells in the upper 

 story of a colony already possessing a queen. 



BEES WORKINO ON JAPANESE BUCK- 

 WHEAT; PHOSPHATE. 



For some reason or other, reports have 

 seemed to indicate that the bees pay more 

 attention to other varieties of buckwheat 

 than to Japanese. One of our lady bee- 

 keepers, a Mrs. Shane, of Chatham, Ohio, 

 had four acres of Japanese in bloom. Her 

 apiarist told me that the bees fairly swarm- 

 ed on it during the morning, and sometimes 

 even during the afternoon. By an accident, 

 a part of it was phosphated and a part not. 

 The former was in every way superior to 

 the other. Neighbor H. had some 20 acres 

 near our basswood apiary. He said the 

 bees were working upon it very heavily. 

 He phosphated a part of it, and the rest was 

 put in without phosphate. Bees were work- 

 ing altogether the best on the phosphated. 1 

 went down a couple of mornings to see the 

 bees at work ; but before I got around to go 

 down, the weather became so dry that but 

 very few bees were upon either patch, al- 

 though the piece with the phosphate showed 

 some .few bees. The stalks on this piece 

 of buckwheat, I should say, were on the 

 average twice as high as the stalks on the 

 other piece without phosphate. 



ANOTHER RED-CLOVER QUEEN. 



In our home apiary we have a genuine 

 red-clover queen. She is, I think, fully 

 equal to the one which we had several years 

 ago, that showed such remarkable qualities. 

 While the other colonies in the home apiary 

 have been doing little or nothing lately 

 in storing surplus, the bees of this red- 

 clover queen have been storing honey from 

 red clover in the sections right along. There 

 has not been a day, I think, but that they 

 have been busy. Lay before yesterday we 

 took off 50 lbs. of section honey, a large por- 

 tion of which was from red clover. Lesir- 

 ing to raise some queen cells, we took out 

 two of the brood-combs and inserted a cou- 

 ple of empt] ones in their place. Before the 

 queen could deposit an egg in either of 

 them, her bees crammed them full of honey, 

 and this during a time when drouth has 

 been prevailing for almost a month back. 

 The worst pan of it is, ihe quttn is already 

 two years old. We .shall do all in our power 



