174 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



OcK 



bees, will be quickly and neatly rebuilt. 

 If but one row of cells is removed in a 

 place, the renewed part will be worker 

 comb. 1 know these facts because I use 

 that method. 



But the small comb plan has a par- 

 ticular advantage over the use of a 

 large comb, either for slicing up or for 

 transferring larvae, in that all the eggs 

 it contains are within a few hours of the 

 same age, which is never the case with 

 an L or other large comb. Mr. Alley 

 is able to know almost to an hour the 

 age of the eggs he uses. 



After the prepared strips are given to 

 the bees and all building is well started, 

 Mr. Alley makes a radical change from 

 his old system, and from both a theo- 

 retical and practical point of view I 

 believe the change is a most decided 

 ad\ance in queen rearing. From the ap- 

 pearance of the queens and the work 

 they are doing I feel sure that the re- 

 sults are sustaining the theory. He as- 

 sured me that queens thus reared were 

 as good the second season as the first, 

 and the work of two year old queens 

 that I saw sustained his contention. 



I could not persuade Mr. Alley to let 

 me publish the details of his present 

 method, at least not before another sea- 

 son. He wants to test his queens over 

 another winter and to make further ex- 

 periments before making public his dis- 

 coveries. Also he is to put some of his 

 queens into a comparative test with 

 queens of several other breeders, and if 

 they are really as superior as believed, 

 it will soon be apparent. 



To his system of small framed hives 

 Mr. Alley attributes his success in per- 

 fectly and cheaply caring for the 

 queens after they have hatched. Twenty- 

 four hours before the cells are due to 

 hatch they are placed in cages of the 

 well known "queen nursery" and as 

 soon after the queens emerge as is con- 

 venient they are transferred to the little 

 nuclei. But if no nuclei are available the 

 queens are retained in the nursery until 

 later, it thereby temporarily serving 

 the purpose and saving the expense of 

 many nuclei. These latter consist of a 

 little box about six inches square and 

 six high, having the bottom nailed fast 

 and the cover loose. Each contains four 

 frames 5x5 1-2 inches square, outside 

 dimension.^. Through the cover of each 

 is a hole of one inch diameter, and into 

 them are slipped the funnel shaped 



feeders. Through these holes he also 

 introduces the queens and very con- 

 venient they are for the purpose. 



Without the feeders he could hardly 

 do, for on them depends much of his 

 success in maintaining these diminu- 

 tive colqnies, and his particular style 

 of feeder is simple, cheap and perfectly 

 adapted to the purpose. The chief ob- 

 jection to special frames and hives for 

 nuclei has been the labor and trouble of 

 stocking them in the spring, and of dis- 

 posing of them profitably and readily 

 in the fall. Mr. Alley's system well 

 meets these points and should be of in- 

 terest and value to all bee-keepers. He 

 has special hive bodies built, which take 

 13 of the small combs. As they have no 

 top or bottom they can be tiered to any 

 desired extent, though he generally 

 uses but two for wintering. To start, 

 he fills a hive of three or four such 

 chambers with framies filled w'ith foun- 

 dation, and into it rims a queen and 

 bees. Soon the frames are filled with 

 comb, brood and honey, and the colony 

 is ready to be broken into parts, each 

 part of four combs w^ith adhering bees 

 forming one nucleus. The queen and 

 some of the combs and bees are left in 

 the hive, more frames of comb or foun- 

 dation are added and soon the process 

 may be repeated. 



In the fall as fast as the queens are 

 disposed of the combs and bees are re- 

 moved from the little hives to these 

 larger chambers, which in turn are com- 

 bined until a strong colony is formed, 

 a queen is given and in a few days they 

 are ready for winter. Mr. Alley says 

 such colonies in such hives winter per- 

 fectly and in the spring are ready to re- 

 commence the chain. He winters his 

 bees in a cellar. His breeding queen is 

 kept in one of the little hives and in the 

 fall is put into the larger chamber and 

 given sufficient bees, combs and 

 brood. Thus a few score frames at less 

 than a cent each, some fifteen special 

 chambers at about twenty cents each, 

 his nucleus hives and feeders at about 

 a quarter each, and his system is com- 

 plete. Could anything be cheaper and 

 at the same time more simple and per- 

 fect? 



Now compare with his system, the 

 sticky, fussy, dauby way used by some 

 in making nuclei, or the pains and ex- 

 pense of getting little combs in sections 

 stocked with brood and bees as used 



