1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



327 



not receiving" proper food at the proper 

 time. 



With the Alley system, as now practiced 

 by that veteran, either egg's or larvaj not 

 over six hours old are used — a practice as 

 close to "Nature's way" as at present 

 seems possible. Recently Mr. Simpson ob- 

 jected to Mr. Alley's use of a match for 

 destroj'ing larvae in the alternate cells, on 

 account of the brimstone. As I understand 

 it, Mr. Alley uses a match simply because 

 it is a handy bit of wood with a smooth, 

 rounded end; and as he uses the hard-end- 

 ed " parlor-matches," no brimstone or oth- 

 er deleterious substance is left in the cells 

 to be removed by the bees. 



The cell-cup plan has much ag-ainst it 

 and little in its favor. It requires much 

 time and the most delicate manipulation, 

 and at its best is surrounded with many 

 dangers. The Alley sj'stem is safe, sim- 

 ple, easy of operation, and if the results 

 achieved by the most careful and observ- 

 ant members of our profession are any cri- 

 terion, it must be acknowledged that the 

 Alley system produces uniformly better 

 queens than anj' other system that has as 

 yet been tried. 



Providence, R. I., Feb. 25. 



NUCLEI MANAGEMENT. 



The Swarthmore Systam any thing but a Success; 

 an Experience. 



BV QUEEN- BREEDER. 



I struck the Swarthmore system of "nu- 

 clei management" with a full head of steam 

 ■on, May 25, 1901. The season in this local- 

 ity was very backward, with cold winds 

 and rain almost daily up to June 1, and I 

 lost several colonies of bees in wintering-; 

 and this led me to take an interest in the 

 article in the May 15th number of Glean- 

 ings, pag-e 434, which showed in such a 

 plausible way how to fertilize queens in 

 nucleus colonies with so little expense in 

 bees, time, labor, care, etc., that I became 

 a convert to the system at once. As I had 

 never before tried to get queens fertilized 

 in less than three or four frame nuclei, this 

 sj'stem was, therefore, entirely new, and 

 so I determined to follow the details very 

 carefully. 



I have had no experience with Swarth- 

 more's system of queen-rearing- up to the 

 time of the hatching- of the queen, as I have 

 my own method, which I prefer to all others, 

 and the same I suppose is true of all queen- 

 breeders. 



I had about 380 tine cells due to hatch 

 June 1st; and May 25 I had prepared 42 

 frames, 8^2X17 inside measure, each hold- 

 ing- 8 section boxes Wi X4X Xl/4, with foun- 

 dation starters. In sets of seven each these 

 frames were placed in eight-frame hive- 

 bodies — 56 boxes in all to each body, all 

 having- been previovisly fitted with covers 

 with zincs, flight-holes, etc. — covers, of 

 course, being left oflf for use later on. 



Now, here comes up the first query in 

 practice, and not explained in the Swarth- 

 more article referred to. I am directed to 

 hive a good-sized swarm (natural or forced) 

 into a hive- body, etc. I don't happen to 

 have a natural swarm at this time, so I 

 must hive a forced one. Whence shall I ob- 

 tain it? I have several full colonies in fair- 

 ly good shape to meet the full honey-flow 

 which I am expecting soon, and which has, 

 in fact, already commenced — a rather bad 

 time to remove bees; but I have started in, 

 and I will see it through, so I select a full 

 colony. Of course, it won't do to drive out 

 all the bees and queen, so I set a full colo- 

 ny to one side and in its place put the hive- 

 body with 7 frames as above. I now brush 

 from the frames of the old colony as many 

 bees with the queen as I can without too 

 much depopulating the parent stock; and 

 these with the field bees give me a strong 

 colony. I do the same thing with five other 

 colonies, and await results. Although hon- 

 ey is coming in I want to be on the safe 

 side, so I give the bees half a pint of sugar 

 sj' rup with a Boardman entrance - feeder, 

 nightly. Honey is now coming in quite 

 freely from dandelion and other sources. 



Now, Swarthmore says that, in a few 

 days, a good prolific queen will have filled 

 these little combs with eggs, so on the 28th 

 I take a peep into a colony. On the first 

 frame, north side, I find about half of the 

 combs partly drawn out, with upper rows 

 of cells filled with honey, and capped. 

 The other half of combs are in various 

 stages of advancement, some being without 

 honey, others with the cells partly filled 

 and not capped, but none containing eggs. 

 The next three frames are in about the 

 same condition, with a larger percentage 

 of capped cells, but no eggs. In the three 

 remaining frames I find the combs with 

 honey in the upper portion, and eggs in the 

 cells not filled with honey. 



The remaining five colonies are in about 

 the same shape, which is evidently not the 

 exact condition for forming nuclei a la 

 Swarthmore, so I think I will wait a little 

 until the queen takes a notion to deposit 

 some eggs on the north side, when all will 

 be well; so I close the hives until the follow- 

 ing da3% when I open for inspection the one 

 first examined the day before. On frame 

 No. 1, north side, I find several eggs in 

 each comb. On No. 2 I find the queen at- 

 tending strictly to business, and eggs in 

 every available cell. Nos. 3 and 4 present 

 about the same condition. The three re- 

 maining frames which contained eggs the 

 day before haven't a single &^^, but are ei- 

 ther empty or partly filled with honey. Ye 

 shades! Where's Swarthmore, Dr. Miller, 

 Doolittle, Alley, Root — somebody who knows 

 more about this business than I do? 



Well, if this kind of thing continues I 

 certainlj' shall not have the nuclei in prop- 

 er condition for queen-fertilization by June 

 1. so I do the onU' thing that suggests it- 

 self. 1 go to full colonies, and remove as 

 man\- frames of hone^' as jan be spared, 



