rtMM mTmmmicKn bee^ journki^. 



447 



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virgin queen or a queen-cell just ready 

 to hatch, and j'ou will have no trouble 

 with after-swarms, for the bees feel so 

 poor at this time that they are glad of 

 anything in the shape of a queen. 



However, if the delay is longer than 

 18 hours, they often get so strength- 

 ened by the rapidly hatching brood, 

 that they will destroy the queen-cell, 

 or kill the virgin queen, and after- 

 swarming will be the result. Do not 

 give them a laying queen unless you 

 wish a prime swarm from the colony 

 in from two weeks to 18 days, for the 

 bees will surely use her for such 

 swarming if the honey harvest con- 

 tinues for that length of time. 



By this plan I get a strong colony 

 on the old stand which will do as much, 

 if not more, in the sections than they 

 would if they had not swarmed, for a 

 new swarm will work with a vigor not 

 known to bees under any other circum- 

 stances. In ten days, if the honey 

 harvest continues, sections are given 

 to the colony, which has rapidly in- 

 creased to such, from the combs of 

 brood carried in the box, and as the 

 young queen has now commenced to 

 lay, the bees will at once go into the 

 sections, often giving a good yield of 

 honey ; yet the main yield will come 

 from the new swarm, as they have at 

 least one-third more bees than they 

 would have had they been hived on a 

 new stand, all the field bees returning 

 to this place. 



As these bees work with a will in the 

 new swarm, as we have them all here 

 with the swarm, and as the harvest is 

 at its height also, and the brood-cham- 

 ber contracted, the storing of honey 

 goes on in the sections at a rapid pace, 

 such colonies often giving from 50 to 

 100 pounds of honey for their keeper, 

 while if hived on the old plan, little 

 save empty sections would be the 

 result. 



Now it will be seen that if the hive 

 is left as we now have it until winter, 

 the bees are not liable to have suffi- 

 cient stores for winter, so when the 

 harvest of white honey begins to draw 

 to a close, the sections are taken from 

 the sides, which were placed there at 

 the time of hiving, and the combs nec- 

 essary to till out the hive are used to 

 take their places. In this way the 

 bees will fill these last for winter, and 

 should a fall yield occur, they will 

 often have some extra to spare for any 

 light colonies you may chance to have. 



If all the sections which were placed 

 at the sides are not completed, they 

 are to be taken from the wide frames 

 and placed with those which are on 

 top, when the bees will finish them, if 

 the season does not drop off too sudden. 

 At this time of the year no more empty 

 sections should be put on the hive to 

 take the place of the full ones taken 



off, but on the contrary, the number of 

 sections should be contracted as much 

 as possible, so as to crowd the whole 

 force of bees on the few that ai'e 

 partly finished, so that, if possible, tliey 

 may be completed. In this way we 

 lessen the number of unfinished sec- 

 tions to be carried over the winter 

 materially, and get nearly all of our 

 honey in a marketable shape ; in 

 places where the fall or darker honey 

 does not find a ready sale, as is the 

 case in this locality. 



I find it profitable to take away 

 combs from below which are filled and 

 sealed, placing empty combs in their 

 stead, setting them one side to feed the 

 bees with in the winter or spring, as 

 some colonies will often get short, and 

 I know of no prettier way of feeding 

 bees than to set in combs of sealed 

 honey; for in this way the bees have 

 their feed in just the way nature de- 

 signed they should have it. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



QUEEN-EXCLUDERS. 



Tlie Use of Perforated.Zinc for 

 Queen-Rearing. 



Read at the Ohio State Convention 



BY DK. G. L. TINKER. 



In discussing this subject, it seems 

 proper to consider the best size of 

 perforations in sheet metal for queen- 

 reai'ing. Up to the present time, if 

 there have been others who have made 

 extensive experiments to determine the 

 best size to use, they have not made it 

 known. 



The size that I have finally decided 

 upon is somewhat more than tive- 

 thirty-seconds of an inch ; in fact, I do 

 not know the measm'emeut in parts of 

 an inch, but I do know that it is the 

 smallest perforation that will admit 

 the free and unobstructed passage of 

 the worker-bees, and anything less is 

 manifestly impracticable. Five-thirty- 

 seeonds of an inch will admit worker- 

 bees, but not freely. I have here a 

 sample of perforated-zinc having this 

 size of perforations. It was sent out 

 some years since by Mr. A. I. Root, 

 and all wlio used it finally decided 

 that it was an obstruction to the 

 worker-bees, and abandoned its use. 



About this time I made my first ma- 

 chine for perforating zinc, and made 

 the perforations a little larger. I soon 

 found, however, that they had to be 

 considerably larger than flve-thirty- 

 seconds of an inch, and that the length 

 of the perforations was not a matter to 

 be considered, so that they were as 

 long as a worker-bee. After changing 

 the dies a number of times. I concluded 

 that I had it about right, and put much 



of the new zinc to use in queen-traps 

 and honey-boards. But after a little I 

 discovered worker-bees apparently 

 ti'ving to gnaw the perforations a little 

 larger, in the queen-traps, and many 

 were seen to be poking their heads 

 back and forth through the zinc, as if 

 to try it before venturing through, and 

 this even after the zinc had been be- 

 fore the hives for sometime. 



I then saw that the bees that were 

 apparently gnawing the zinc, were in 

 reality fast in the zinc by the top of 

 their heads, and the tip of their mandi- 

 bles. And many of the bees were 

 several minutes in extracting their 

 heads. I then decided to further en- 

 large the perforations, and that the 

 smallest practical perforation was one 

 that would allow the bees to test it, as 

 they are sure to do, by bobbing their 

 heads through the zinc to find if they 

 can pass without hindrance. 



I then made my square-end dies for 

 perforating zinc, now so well known, 

 and found that it obviated all the difli- 

 culties before encountered ; and yet 

 the perforations were considerably 

 smaller than any other perforated-zinc 

 in use. 



I have since made new dies for 

 making round-end perforations. The 

 size of the perforations are about the 

 same as the dies I still use for making 

 the perforations with the square ends. 



As before stated, in queen-rearing 

 as in the production of comb or ex- 

 tracted honey, the perforations in the 

 zinc must be of a size to admit the free 

 and obstructed passage of worker- 

 bees ; and it is fouad, after some thi-ee 

 years' use of my perforated-zinc, that 

 no laying queen has ever been known 

 to pass it ; and that no ordinarily- 

 developed virgin queen has been able 

 to get through it. 



It is true, that by some of the 

 methods of queen-rearing, the queens 

 are but little larger than worker-bees, 

 and such are able to pass the zinc ; but 

 such undeveloped queens are unpro- 

 lific, as compared with fully developed 

 queens, and thej* are of no pi'actical 

 value. It follows that bee-keepers 

 who use perforated-zinc for queen- 

 rearing or other purposes, should rear 

 only good and well-developed queens, 

 and especially since good queens can 

 now be reared as cheaply as poor ones. 



As to the methods of using per- 

 forated-zinc in queen-rearing, they are 

 so many and so varied that I shall 

 only be able to allude to a few of 

 them. 



The wood-zinc honey-board has of 

 late proved to be quite indispensable 

 to queen-breeders, as it is to many 

 producers of comb honey. 



Large numbers of queen-cells can 

 be produced above a queen-excluder, 

 while a good laying queen is in the 



