1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



883 



lusion that they are improving their stock. It 

 does not require an expert to decide that such a 

 method is open to serious objection. 



My bee-keeping friend who may read these 

 lines, it is for you to decide whether you will al- 

 low your apiary to deteriorate as a result of natu- 

 ral supersedure or whether you will keep your 

 tiueens until they begin to fail, meanwhile over- 

 hauling every one of your colonies four or five 

 limes every season to see if the queens are begin- 

 ning to fail, and finally have the most of them do 

 their own requeening in spite of your misdirect- 

 ed efforts to help them, or whether you will make 

 a sure thing of it once and for all by requeening 

 your apiary each year at a trifling cost, and great- 

 ly increase your profits by bringing your entire 

 apiary to a higher state of permanent productive- 

 ness. I say trifling cost, because with the right 

 system and a very simple equipment any bee- 

 keeper can rear his own queens and have *hem 

 fertilized without having any nuclei; and no col- 

 ony need be queenless for a single day except the 

 ones that start the queen-cells, and these not over 

 48 hours. This simple method is fully explained 

 in Gleanings, Dec. 15, page 1586. 



THE queen's relation TO THE SWARM PROBLEM. 



It should be understood that there are other 

 forces that govern the real act of swarming, in a 

 far greater degree than the mere presence of queen- 

 rells; and unless these conditions are present 

 there will be no swarming; and the queen, quick- 

 ly passing the broody stage in which the mother 

 instinct predominates, will quickly destroy every 

 queen-cell that lies in her path, and she will find 

 them all. I confess the above is not orthodox 



as compared with the text-books; however, I sub- 

 mit it as the most reasonable theory that has yet 

 been advanced as to why queen-cells are construct- 

 ed, and why a queen will allow queen-cells to re- 

 main in the hive at certain times and not at others. 



In conclusion, Doolittle is certainly right when 

 he says that natural supersedure is one of nature's 

 plans. The question is, do we want nature's 

 methods in their crude form, or do we want na- 

 ture's plans modified and improved by man's 

 reason and ingenuity until the objections are all 

 eliminated like a rose without thorns? 



Birmingham, Ohio. 



THE WHITNEY V. THE MILLER BEE- 

 ESCAPE. 



BY WM. M. WHITNEY. 



I note what is said in Stray Straws, Jan. 15 and 

 Feb. 1, about the Miller and 'Whitney bee-escapes 

 for outside use, and would like to make an ex- 

 planation of the working of the one bearing my 

 name, illustrated on page 1150, 1907. The es- 

 cape, of course, can be made to suit the needs of 

 the apiarist. My business being comparatively 

 small, and the matter an experiment, the escape- 

 box was made of thin stuff large enough to cover 

 six supers of sections resting on their sides cross- 

 wise on a table and about ^4 inch apart. The 

 box, or cover, telescopes over the supers and rests 

 on the table so that the line of escapes is at 

 right angles to the line of supers — whether the su- 

 pers should rest on the side or end depending, of 



SWISS BEE-STATION AT SIGGENTHAL, 



