158 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



September 



it has to be first built, is better or more 

 to their liking than the old, but good 

 comb at the other side of their brood 

 nest. 



Naples, N. Y-, July 13, 1902. 



QUEEN REARING. 



"Swarthmore" Demonstrates His Method Be- 

 fore the Philadelphia People. 



(M. F. Reeve). 



H E NOTED 

 queen breeder, 

 E. L. Pratt, 

 gave the Phila- 

 delphia Bee- 

 Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation a clean- 

 cut talk on 

 queen rearing 

 in artificial cell- 

 cups by im- 

 proved meth- 

 ods, through a paper read by Secre- 

 tary Hahman, at the outing on July 20, 

 at Vice-President Flower's apiary, Ash- 

 borne, Pa. 



The distinctive feature of Mr. Pratt's 

 plan is the rearing of queens in mina- 

 ture hives, either isolated or over 

 strong colonies. 



Nothing would do then but that Mr. 

 Pratt should give a practical illustra- 

 tion of his manner of transferrins: lar- 

 vae from combs to cell-cups, which he 

 proceeded to do. He had brought a 

 press and empty shells or cups, along 

 with him. Mr. Flower provided wax 

 and a cup and oil stove. Melted wax 

 was poured into the cups and when it 

 had hardened, the cups were placed 

 under the press and given a stamp, and 

 were ready for the larvae. Mr. Flower 

 opened a hive and took out a comb 

 with eggs. Mr. Pratt fashioned a 

 sharp-pointed stick inserted it in sever- 

 al cells, pulled out the larvae and de- 

 posited each in a cup and the cups in 

 a frame and the frame was put back in 

 the hive for the bees to finish out the 

 drawing of the cells and to do the rest. 

 The visitors were taken into the apiary 

 and were shown frames containing 

 larvae which had been inserted by Mr. 

 Pratt at his home place just a week 

 previously and had been accepted. 

 Some of the drawn cells provoked ex- 

 clamations of surprise on account of 

 their great length. 



Mr. Flower also exhibited his im- 

 proved tent with which he is conduct- 

 ing experiments on the mating of 

 queens in confinement, a subject on 

 which he spent considerable time last 

 year, and the results of which were em- 

 bodied in a paper read before the Bee- 

 Keepers' Association last winter. 



By the way, I omitted in my hurry 

 last week to mention the fact that at 

 the Mt. Holly meeting, Mr. Hornor 

 showed a new bee escape which he said 

 was a Canadian invention and had been 

 exhibited at the Pan-American Expo- 

 sition. It was claimed to be a big im- 

 provement over the ordinary escape in 

 the fact that there were nine separate 

 escapes instead of one. These were in 

 a row across a board, thus making a 

 very rapid clearing of the supers. Mr. 

 Hornor said the bees went down in 

 "no time," being attracted towards the 

 light, which was admitted through 

 screen clothing on the edge of the 

 board- He said the drones would not 

 "ball up" or obstruct the escape. 



Rutledge, Pa., July 20, 1902. 



A VERMONT BEE=KEEPER. 



Oneiof Our Regular Contributors Has a Pleas- 

 ant Visit to the Green Mountain State. 



(A. C Miller). 



MONG trees and shrubs, 

 picturesquely scattered, 

 well up on one of Ver- 

 mont's green hills lies 

 the apiary of E. L Bragg. 

 It was my good fortune 

 to call upon him one af- 

 ternoon in mid July, and my reception 

 was most pleasant. 



Mr. Bragg has 50 or 60 colonies all 

 in the original type of Langstroth 

 hives, with portico and cap- Also his 

 bees contain the blood of the strain of 

 Italians first sent out by Mr. Lang- 

 stroth, Mr. B's father having purchased 

 some of the stock. Today his yard con- 

 tains only hybrids, but Mr. B. says the 

 vigor of those Italians is still apparent. 

 He has tried some other strains but 

 only to discard them, finding his hy- 

 brid stock better fitted to his needs. He 

 follows the simplest methods possible 

 as his large farm calls for much of his 

 time, but the results soeak well. Na- 

 tural swarming is allowed, and swarms 

 are hived on the old stands, but in- 



