418 



TM® MMEMICMH ®E® JQUmnMlL. 



kA^k^m^t 



front of the hive. I also use tin tags 

 which have two meanings, according 

 to position. They are in thi-ee shapes 

 — round, triangular and square — with 

 a hole in the center through vvhicli a 

 tinned taclj has been pushed to its 

 head and soldered. 



The round tag placed on the front 

 of the hive means, "needs cell;" in 

 front of entrance, " think they need 

 cell ;" and I look again before giving a 

 cell, and sometimes find a queen, and 

 save the cell. The triangle in front of 

 the hive means, " give larvM ;" and at 

 the enti-ance, " give larvw test." The 

 square in front of the hive means, 

 "queen is laying;" at the entrance, 

 "think queen is laying." To illustrate: 



I look the next day after giving the 

 cells, to see if thev are either torn or 

 hatched ; if hatchea, I mark the tablet 

 " Q, hatched 5-12 ;" if the cell appears 

 torn, I do not mark the tablet, but put 

 a round tag at the entrance, as I know 

 that they have means of starting a cell, 

 and I look again in a day or two, and 

 if they have started cups, I change the 

 tag to the front of the hive, and the first 

 time I distribute cells I give them one. 



Whenever I find a queen just 

 hatched, and do not find larva% I put 

 the triangle on the front of the hive. 

 When I find a nucleus that has no 

 young larvas, and I do not see a queen, 

 I put the triangle at the entrance, and 

 in both cases give a frame of eggs at 

 my convenience, marking the first 

 " c-e," and the last " c-e-test," giving 

 the dale, and also marking the tablet. 



When I see a queen that looks as 

 though she was laying, but I find no 

 eggs except in marked frames, I put 

 the square at the entrance, and look 

 again in a day or two, when I can tell 

 certainly. I then change the tag to 

 the front of the hive. 



As fast as I find queens laying, I 

 mark the tablet according to their 

 looks and appearance — " A-a — B-b," 

 the B"s never being sent away on or- 

 ders, but used in our own apiaries, the 

 first in the home apiary, and the latter 

 in the out apiaries. The tablet would 

 then read, " i-c and c-e-5-11 ; hatched 

 5-12 ; c-e.5-16 ; laying, 5-20-A." As 

 part of this record is of no use unless 

 put in a book for reference, take a 

 a clean tablet and write with a cravon, 

 "I-Q, laying 5-20-A." When she is 

 removed, I put a round tag on the 

 hive as at first. 



In addition to this, if there should 

 be anything unusual that needs atten- 

 tion, I mark a tablet and tack it on 

 the front end of the cover, "need 

 bees," "bees strong," "need feed," 

 " can spare honey," "caged queen," 

 etc., and remove as soon as their wants 

 have been attended to. 



I can now go through the yard and 

 at a glance can tell how many need 



cells or larvas ; also how many queens 

 are laying, and another glance will 

 tell me the condition of each hi%'e. 



As all of these marks are fastened 

 to the hive, it gives the apiar}' a more 

 tidy appearance than to have a lot of 

 stones on the hives ; besides, loose 

 marks are in many ways liable to be 

 accidentally misplaced. 



AN INCUBATOR IN QUEEN-REARING. 



If I have more cells than nuclei to 

 take care of them, and do not wish to 

 make more, I use an "incubator," as 

 we call it. It has a wooden frame 

 slanting in towards the top, and 

 beveled at the corners to fit closely, 

 and having a top with l|-inch auger 

 holes in it, in which to hang the wire 

 cloth cups for the cells, which are fast- 

 ened at the top to a wire ring a little 

 larger than the hole, so as to slip the 

 cup in, and catch the wire on the 

 frame; they also have a cover of mica, 

 fastened on one side to form a hinge. 



Place this incubator over the center 

 of a full colonj', putting the enameled 

 cloth over the space not occupied by 

 the frame, then whenever there is an 

 extra cell, I pin it on the side of one 

 of these cups, drop the cover, and put 

 on a cushion to keep them warm. If 

 there should be a large number of cells, 

 two or three can be put into each cup, 

 and by a little watching (as they can 

 be seen through the mica cover with- 

 out disturbing anything) the queens 

 can all be saved. I do this bj' going 

 to some place where I know they have 

 a cell, cut out the cell, put it into the 

 incubator, and drop the young queen 

 off of a soft twig upon the frame, and 

 they are almost certain to accept her. 



I am sure to always have either eggs 

 or young larvi\; in the hive, to indicate 

 the fact if she should be lost ; and I 

 also think that bees are much less lia- 

 ble to be uneasj- if they have something 

 to do in the way of housework in caring 

 for the little ones ; it also prevents the 

 bees from swarming out when the 

 queen takes her "wedding-flight"' and 

 my experience has been entirely in 

 favor of giving, instead of taking away, 

 unsealed larvaj when introducing vir- 

 gin queens. 



VIRGIN QUEEN INTRODUCTION. 



Virgin queens that ai'e several days 

 old should be put into an introducing- 

 cage ; but if I was preparing a nucleus 

 especially for that purpose, I would 

 prefer the bees from a queenless 

 nucleus, where a large part wore young 

 bees, to taking them out of the upper 

 story, as Mr. Doolittle recommends ; 

 both because I think that younger bees 

 would be better, and I would not wish 

 to disturb the bees in the upper story, 

 if they were strop g enougli, and will- 

 ing to work i «'- tons — and they must 



be, when a nucleus can be taken from 

 the upper story. 



I have never daubed or rolled in 

 hone3-, or used the nasty tobacco 

 smoke, with any kind of a queen to 

 introduce her ; in fact, I do little 

 smoking of any kind, deeming that a 

 quiet condition of both bees and queen 

 is essential to success in that line ; 

 besides, I do not like to mistreat the 

 harmless creatures that will prove to 

 be our best friends after awhile, the 

 most faithful of all, keeping quietly at 

 work, although we rob them every 

 day ; and although they have a sharp 

 weapon of defense, thej" meeklj- sulj- 

 mit to all our caprices, without a 

 breath of fresh air, or a glimpse of the 

 bright sun, and the pretty flowers with 

 their fragrant odors tliat are supposed 

 to make the bee-world liappy. 



The way I prefer to introduce a 

 queen, excepting those that are just 

 hatched, is to put her into the cage as 

 before mentioned, and when the colony 

 is k,notv7i, not guessed, to be queenless, 

 place this cage over the top of the 

 frames, having the opening in the cage 

 over the opening between tlie frames, 

 and having the cage raised a little so 

 that the bees can pass under it and get 

 acquainted with their new " mother," 

 if such she should prove to be ; but I 

 should not expect better success with 

 virgin queens so introduced, than with 

 one reared in the hive, for sometimes 

 queens will get lost on their flight, and 

 I would not like to say, as Mr. Doolit- 

 tle does in his plan of introducing vir- 

 gin queens, on page 126 of his book on 

 "Queen Rearing :" "They are now to 

 be left for four or five days, when you 

 will find a laying queen (providing 

 that the queen was four or five days 

 old when put into the cage)." Al- 

 thougli from a large experience of both 

 myself and others with the introducing 

 cage, I should have no hesitancy in 

 using these words concerning a fertile 

 queen, for I then consider it an almost 

 absolutely sure thing. 



I do not open the hive from which I 

 am expecting a queen to fly, neither 

 one close by, during the middle of the 

 daj', if it can be avoided. Be very 

 careful not to leave any sweet where 

 the bees can get it during a dearth of 

 honej- in the fields, and if the bees are 

 inclined to rob, do not open the liives 

 in regular succession, but change the 

 Ixise of operations awhile ; or, if they 

 are too bad, leave them alone until 

 they quiet down. If there should be 

 danger of any one of them being 

 robbed, just set a folding mosquito-bar 

 tent over it, and they will soon find 

 that the)- are mastered. 



THE SHIPPING OF QUEENS. 



For several years I used the Feet 

 cage, with a hole large enough for the 

 queen to pass, bored into one of the 



