494 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



August, 1919 



MODIFIED PRATT SYSTEM 



A Few ^Modifications Overcome the 

 Objections to the Swarthmore Sys- 

 tem ofi ^een-rearing 



By W. B. Bray 



WHEN left 

 to them- 

 selves the 

 bees attend to 

 the rearing of 

 their queens in 

 their own way ; 

 but when their 

 owner steps in 

 and takes the 

 reins into his own hands he can so gui.le 

 the actions of the bees as to attain the end 

 he is striving for, that is, a strain ot bees 

 that will gather more honey. Bees in their 

 natural state are not such great storers of 

 honey. Even an improved strain of honey- 

 gatherers will soon return to the common 

 level if left to their own devices for a few 

 years. 



But once the beekeeper masters the ins 

 and outs of queen-rearing he has it in his 

 power to increase the honey-gathering qual- 

 ities of his bees bv queen-rearing. A queen- 

 rearing svstem that goes no further than 

 using all "or sundrv cells that are discovered 

 at swarming time"^to replace old queens does 

 not go very far, the only gain being young 

 queens instead of old ones. In fact, it is 

 a bad p!an because it tends toward breed- 

 ing a swarming strain. [Some question.— 

 Editor.] , ^ ^ 



Queen-breeding implies the constant 

 breeding from the best to replace those be- 



Fig. 1. — 'i'lii.s n\in mating-box 

 height, 10 inches in width, and 



low the required standard. Every beekeeper 

 has had a colony whose surplus has amazed 

 and delighted him. He would say, ' ' If only 

 all the others were like that, then beekeep- 

 ing would be a good game." Every bee- 

 keeper can and should do his own breeding 

 unless he is prepared to buy queens from a 

 breeding specialist for all his colonies, not 

 only once iTut from year to year; for other- 



wise the sur- 

 rounding bees 

 will gradually 

 but certainly 

 cross with his 

 till he has lost 

 the strain he 

 bought. 



It is now 

 somewhat over 

 10 years since the late E. L. Pratt, writing 

 under the name of Swarthmore, made public 

 his methods of queen-.rearing. The new sys- 

 tem attracted a great deal of attention be- 

 cause of the improvement in appliances and ' 

 the economy in bees and time. A set of 

 booklets was published, descriptive of the 

 system — namely, "Increase," "Baby Nu- 

 clei," "Cell-getting," and "Simplified 

 Queen-rearing." In "Baby Nuclei," Pratt 

 recommended using extremely small nuclei, 

 with combs about the size of sections; but 

 later a larger size was found jireferable and 

 the twin mating-box came to be used. Pratt 

 subsequently, in "Simplified Queen-rear- 

 ing," endorsed this change. 



The Swarthmore system has been severely 

 criticised in this country; but in some cases 

 I am sure that the critics have not given it 

 a proper trial. I would point out here that 

 a system that includes grafting of queen- 

 cells requires of the operator both a keen 

 eye and a steady hand. On referring to two 

 of the latest American works by authors of 

 world-wide repute, I find that Pellett's 

 ' ' Profitable Beekeeping ' ' does not even 

 mention the system. "Beekeeping," by Dr. 

 E. F. Phillips, contains a description of it; 

 but the author is rather non-committal as 

 to its merits. He says: "Considerable va- 

 riation in the success of this method has 

 been reported, and there are numerous 

 phases of this question on which more light 

 is needed. Some strains of bees seem to be 

 poor for this purpose. On the whole, how- 

 ever, when directions are carefully followed, 

 a good number of fine queen-cells will usu- 

 ally be obtained. ' ' From this it would ap- 

 pear that the system is not an infallible suc- 

 cess. 



I bought the books and studied them with 

 such interest that in 1910 I bought the ap- 

 pliances and began using the new methods. 

 Tho my first few attempts proved to be 

 failures I was not satisfied to give it up. 

 Pratt wrote in such a convincing and op- 

 timistic manner, and gave such attention to 

 details, that I was sure the fault lay with 

 me. After a little practice I found the 

 secret of success, and with a few modifica- 

 tions I soon had the system working to my 

 satisfaction. For the benefit of any who 

 have been unsuccessful, and those who 

 would like to try their skill at queen-rearing, 

 I will explain where I have adopted or 

 modified the Swarthmore methods. 



I use the Swarthmore swarm-box which 

 is made to hold five frames. It has a wire- 

 cloth bottom, and a cleat at each end raises 

 it to give ventilation beneath. The lid has 



