THE SMERICSJNi BEE JQURT^mi<. 



663 



QUEEN-EXCLUDERS. 



Rearing Queens Above h Queen- 

 Excluding: Honey-Uoard. 



Written for the American Dee Journal 



BY G. M. UOOLITTLE. 



From the numerous letters which 

 come to me from those who have tried 

 the plan of queen-rearing as given in 

 my Ijook, all of which speak of their 

 success in using the same, I am led to 

 believe that this plan is to succeed in 

 the hands of all, in every locality, and 

 in every clime. Believing this to be 

 true, I am led to ofl'er a few words for 

 those who think that the plan is a 

 " fussy one " as compared with the 

 Allej- plan and others. 



Certainly the making of the cells- 

 cups cannot be what is alluded to as 

 "fussy," for these can be made during 

 winter evenings, or at an}- time, this 

 work being far better than passing 

 away these unoccupied moments in 

 sitting around the store or tavern, 

 j^fHstening to the idle gossip there, as 

 some are known to do. As this part 

 of the work is so easily and quickly 

 done, it hardly enters in as to time 

 con.sumed, but, to be just, we will 

 allow the time as five minutes to make 

 the dozen cups for one colony. 



Next we have the getting of the 

 larvae for the cups, and the two cells 

 which contain the royal jelly, which is 

 to be put into each of the cups. This 

 will consume about five minutes more ; 

 while the putting of the same into the 

 cups will take about ten minutes. I 

 have often done it in seven. Then it 

 will take about two minutes to slip this 

 stick of prepared cups into the frame, 

 and place it in the upper storj' of anj' 

 hive which has a queen-e.xcluder over 

 it. 



The work is now done until about 

 the time the queens are ready to hatch, 

 when it will require but a moment to 

 take the frame of cells out of the hive, 

 and about a minute a piece to put each 

 cell into a nucleus ; or into the apart- 

 ments partitioned oflf at each side of 

 the upper stories, where the}' are to 

 hatch and become fertilized ; for these 

 cells can be picked oif the frames as 

 easily as apples can be picked oft' a tree, 

 while no combs need ever be cut where 

 the cells are to be inserted. Simply 

 l)ress the hard and the unyielding base 

 I of these wax-cells against the side of 

 the comb until it is imbedded into the 

 same, and it it is a fixture. The aver- 

 age number of cells which I secure 

 from each prepared frame is ten. and 

 as it takes but 33 minutes for the whole 



operation from beginning to end, we 

 have about 3^ minutes as the time con- 

 sumed to the apiarist to secure a lay- 

 ing queen, by this "fussy" plan, as 

 Mr. Alley and some others call it. 



Well, I do not believe in cheap 

 queens, as all know ; but if I did, 

 would not one dollar (the price usually 

 charged for untested queens), pay nn- 

 pretty well for 3A minutes' work ? Now 

 let us look at tlie Alley plan a little, 

 and see how long it will take to get 

 the same number of queens, which is 

 about the number as recommended by 

 Mr. Alley. 



Of course you will want a swarming- 

 box to keep the bees in for ten hours, 

 which he recommends to prepare them 

 for cell-building ; but as this is easily 

 made, and will last a lifetime, this is 

 not worthy of mention. 



Now you have to drum the bees out 

 from a colony, so that they fill them- 

 selves with honey, and leave them in 

 this swarming-ljox for ten hours. This 

 drumming-out process will take ten 

 minutes at least, if the bees have time 

 to fill themselves with honey. Then it 

 will take two minutes to take them to 

 the cellar and get them again, and 

 two minutes more to hive them into 

 the hive where they are to build cells. 



Next is the getting of the strip of 

 comb containing tlie larv,a\ the cutting 

 it into strips, the killing of every other 

 larva with the brimstone end of a 

 match ; the melting of wax and rosin 

 to stick this strip on the comb, and the 

 fastening of the same in place, which 

 we will place at the very reasonable 

 time of 15 minutes. 



After the cells are completed we 

 have to cut the strip of comb from the 

 one to whicli it was fastened, cut the 

 cells apart, patch up those mutilated 

 in cutting, with a piece of foundation 

 and a hot-knife, when they are ready 

 for the nuclei. This operation will 

 take at least five minutes ; then it takes 

 one minntc each to pht them in the 

 nuclei, and three minutes to put the 

 bees which built the cells back with 

 their brood, or the brood and queen 

 back with them. 



By adding all the foregoing minutes 

 together, the same as we did before, 

 we have 47 as the number of minutes 

 required to produce ten queens on the 

 Alley plan, or 4% minutes for each 

 queen. By looking a little fnrther, we 

 find that if the queens are sold at II 

 each, as was supp<ised by the first cal- 

 culation, we have ten cents as the price 

 which was received for each one-third 

 of a minutes' work ; so if we are to 

 have the same price in this latter case, 

 we must sell these queens reared by 

 the Alley plan, at 11.40 each, to re- 

 ceive the same compensation for our 

 labor. Surely, adopting the wonls 

 found in one of our bee-papers, " So 



far as I am acquainted with Mr. Alley's 

 method, I nuist say that if obliged to 

 rear queens by it, or give up queen- 

 rearing, I would accept the latter. 

 The metliod reijuires more time and 

 patience than 1 have to devote to such 

 business." 



Now, dear reader, you may think 

 that I am prejudiced, but if so, it is 

 only in failing to accomplish as much 

 by the Alley and other methods in the 

 same length of time that I desired to, 

 and hence I went to work to see if a 

 more expeditious way could not be 

 found, and one by which the bees ■ 

 could 1)e alw,ays left in just that condi- 

 tion which we had them for honey- 

 gathering purposes, where the extrac- 

 tor was used. 



By the plan which I have made pub- 

 lic we have no queenless bees at any 

 time ; and have no bees doing noth- 

 ing but rear queens ; but on the con- 

 trary, the colony that is rearingqueens 

 is working for honey to the same ad- 

 vankujc that it would under any other 

 circumstances ; while at the same time 

 queens are being reared more expedi- 

 tiously tlum by any other plan known 

 to the writer ; and that, too, after I 

 have tried nearly every plan that I 

 have ever seen mentioned in print. 



If any think otherwise than I do, all 

 that is needed is to try the difi'erent 

 plans side by side, and then adopt the 

 one which seems best to them. This 

 is a free country, and I do not wish 

 any one to use anything that I recom- 

 mend, unless he can see that it is to 

 his .advantage to do so. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



GOLDEN-ROD. 



Excellent Fall Honey rroin (he 

 Oolden-Rod, etc. 



Written for the American Bre Journal 

 BY G. H. ASHBY. 



In answer to the request on page 

 (136, allow me to say that golden-rod 

 is our Ijcsl fall honey-plant in Western 

 New York. The fall honey we depend 

 upon is, buckwheat, golden-rod, as- 

 ters and Michaelmas daisy (called 

 Micklenias), and they bloom in the 

 order named. Golden-rod alwa}-s 

 yields the most of any, the weather 

 being favorable. It begins to bloom 

 aboiit .Sept. 1, and lasts about four 

 weeks. It always yields well when 

 the weather is favorable, and bees 

 fairly swarm upon it at all times of 

 the day. I think that were the days 

 .as long, and the weather as favorable 

 as it usually is in clover or basswood 

 harvest, we would get as much honey 

 from it in the same time. The honey 

 is a nice golden color (al.so the pollen), 

 and quite heavy, but I think that it 



