280 



THE BEE-KEEPER'S GUIDE; 



of old dark comb to within an eighth of an inch of the base by 

 use of a sharp, warmed knife, these inner cells, which Mr. 

 Pridgen and others call cocoons, may be easily looseneci by 

 bending the comb. These were first used by the Atchleys. 

 He loosens them in this way, when they contain larvae about a 

 day old, from his best queen. By pushing into these a trans- 

 ferring stick, concave at the end (Fig. 132), he can raise the 

 inner cell-larva, food and all, and insert them into a cup. This 

 is a quick way to people the cells with larvae. Mr. Pridgen 

 often bores small five-sixteenth inch holes nearly through the 

 stick to receive the cups, waxes the stick, and then presses the 

 newly-formed cups into these. In this case he pushes them in 

 with a stick much like the dipping-sticks, only longer and t 

 trifle^maller. In these may be placed a little jelly and the 

 larvae as already described. Mr. Pridgen places these for a 



Fig. 132. 



Pridgen Tran^ferrUig- Stick (full UtigtJi and size.) 

 — Frvm George W. York & Co. 



few hours in a hive which was filled with brood twelve days 

 before, and placed with a queen-excluder on another colony. 

 When he wishes to give the cups and larvae, he removes the 

 upper hive, shakes the bees that they may soon find that they 

 are queenless, shuts them in over a broadly ventilated bottom- 

 board, and in a few hours gives them the cups. They accept 

 the care of these at once. He has had thirty-six received and 

 fed in this way. He soon removes these to an upper story over 

 a colony, with the queen-excluder, of course, between them. 

 In from ten to twelve days he has a fine lot of cells for the 

 nuclei. Mr. Pridgen puts a comb partly-filled with water in 

 the hive that is shut up. As we have seen, this would be a 

 time when water would be very essential. The bees are con- 

 fined and worried. While some queen-breeders still use the 

 Alley method, most now use the Doolittle, and most will soon 

 adopt the Pridgen improvement, as many have done already. 



