AlGl'ST, 1919 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



497 



this early cage, the release of tiie queen, or 

 the giving' the bees access to her, thiu the 

 perforated metal, was not automatic. 



Later, on page 342 of the American Bee 

 Journal for 1910, Vincent Asprea of Italy 

 describes a cage embodying the same valua- 

 ble principle, but, like the Costellow cage, 

 it was not automatic in action, as it requir- 

 ed that the hive be opened once or twice 

 after caging the queen therein. 



However, the combination of the candy 

 jirinciple with the bees eating tluMr way to 



Improved Benton cage with U-shaped tin removed, 

 showing perforated zinc at outer end of passageway. 



the queen thru a short passageway, guarded 

 only by a bit of queen-excluding metal, 

 then, a day or two later, after the bees 

 have become acquainted with the new moth- 

 er, releasing her by eating the candy from 

 a longer, unguarded passageway, is distinct- 

 ly the invention of Thos. Chantry; and I 

 feel should be so named, unless the princi- 

 ple can be shown to have been used by oth- 

 ers at an earlier date. The principle is of 

 real value. E. F. Atwater. 



Meridian, Idaho. 



Thompson's Reply to Atwater. 



It is impossible that I could have had a 

 hazy memory of anything written in the 

 Beekeepers ' Keview 12 years ago, since I 

 never saw a copy of that magazine until 

 1912. I used to keep queens for months by 

 caging them in spiral cages along the top- 

 bars of the frames, and after a few days 

 replacing the tin with a strip of perforated 

 zinc. 



This is how the cages came to be made: 

 There was a colony that refused to accept 

 a cell or a queen in the regular way, so I 

 took one of the caged queens and released 

 her on the top-bars of the frames. She then 

 fanned her wings for joy, and the bees did 

 likewise. She was accepted, and, being fed 

 by the bees, was found laying the next day. 

 So it occurred to me that if a queen is more 

 readily accepted after the bees have mingled 

 with her, why not make an introducing cage 

 to admit the bees before the queen was re- 

 leased"? Accordingly, I have since that time 

 used the idea in various cages I have made. 



In the article to which Mr. Atwater re- 

 fers I find this statement: "One fault of 

 the Chantry cage is that occasionally a 

 queen is so stupid that she can not tind the 

 way out of the cage when the candy is 



gone. ' ' The reason for this, I have found, 

 is that the grain of the wood and also the 

 vertical position of the cage prevent her 

 leaving. This .difficulty may be overcome 

 by burning out the entrance to the cage and 

 hanging the cage horizontally. Yet an en- 

 trance with flat walls is much more satis- 

 factory than one with rounded walls, even 

 when the latter is burned out; for in testing- 

 out these cages it has been my experience 

 that over half of the queens refuse to leave 

 thru a cylindrical hole. For this reason I 

 prefer a passageway with four straight walls 

 rather than a cylindrical one. 



The Improved Benton Cage. 



The principle of these cages I have also 

 applied to the Benton cage. For sending out 

 ({ueens thru the mails the Benton mailing 

 and introducing cage shown in the cut has 

 been tried out and has proved successful. 

 The cylindrical passages at each end of the 

 cage are filled with candy. The shorter one 

 lias tacked over it at the outer end a piece 

 of perforated zinc covered with a remov- 

 able strip of tin bent in the shape of a U. 

 The screen covering the face of the cage is 

 just short enough for the admission of one 

 arm of the U-shaped tin. This arm slips 

 into the cage and covers the inner end of 

 the short passageway, and the outer arm of 

 the U strip covers the perforated zinc at 

 the_ outer end of the passageway where it is 

 tacked in place. Thus in the shorter pas- 

 sageway both surfaces of the candy are 

 covered so that the bees will be prevented 



Same cage with U-shaped tin in place. Perforated 



tin on side of cage may be removed when putting 



queen and attendants in cage. 



from getting to it while in the mails. For 

 the admission of the queen and bees, a small 

 opening is made in the middle of the side. 

 After the queen and bees are caged, the 

 opening is closed with a piece of tin. On 

 arrival at the apiary, when the queen is 

 ready to be introduced the U tin is removed 

 and the cage placed horizontally on the 

 comb just above the brood, the cage being 

 attached to the comb by means of a nail 

 or bent wire. In a short time the bees 

 will have eaten thru and gotten to the 

 queen, thus allowing the caged bees to 

 be released, while the size of the perfora 



