120 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



latter colony in shape for winter, for 

 they will probably be very short of 

 stores, if they are black or German 

 bees. But, again, note this: We know 

 where the queen is. She is where she 

 belongs — in the brood-nest — and what- 

 ever plan we employ to insure the col- 

 ony winter stores, it is inuch less work 

 because she is there. 



I have not run a colony for extracted 

 honey without an excluder for two 

 years, and have no idea that I will 

 ever do so again. Three years ago I 

 had only about fifty excluders; that 

 season 1 ran about 150 colonies for ex- 

 tracted honey, and I firmly believe that 

 I secured nearly as much, of a much 

 better grade, from the 50 on which I 

 used excluders, as I did from the 100 

 colonies without. The next winter I 

 ordered, I think it was 100 or 120. and 

 there is no question but what with me 

 they have paid their cost many times 

 in both seasons since, and they are, of 

 course, barring accidents, good for a 

 life-time. I use, and greatly prefer, 

 the all-zinc for two reasons; First, the 

 all-zinc is much less hindrance to the 

 bees; in fact, an all-zinc is practically 

 no hindrance to a colony in storing 

 in an upper story. If the bees try 

 to carry heavy loads of pollen up 

 through, some of it will get scraped 

 of¥, which is a good thing. The other 

 reason is, they are much stronger and 

 more durable. The former may split 

 and check off, but new frames can be 

 made, and the zinc itself is everlast- 

 ing- 



QUEEN REARING. 



A Novel Method of Securing the Building 



of Queen Cells with the Queen 



Still in the Hive 



I occasionally publish in the Review 

 things in which I have no faith. I do 

 this because my judgment is not infal- 

 lible. Things at which I have sneered, 

 when first brought to my notice, have 

 turned out to be of greatvalue. Again, 

 I have published things about which I 

 have been just a trifle skeptical — 

 thought that it was possible that they 

 might be what they seemed, but I felt 

 that more experience was necessary 

 before a final decision could be rend- 

 ered. Still further, I have published 

 things in which I had great faith, only 



to be disappointed in the final results. 

 All this shows that at least one editor 

 is very much human. 



The foregoing thoughts came to me 

 as I read over an article written by 

 Thos. Broderick ot New York, and 

 published last August in the American 

 Bee Journal. The gist of the whole 

 article is that, by maiming a queen, 

 cutting off about half of one of her long 

 legs, the bees will become so dissatis- 

 fied with her, think she is failing, or 

 seriously injured, that they at once 

 attempt to replace her, by beginning the 

 construction of queen cells. 



It would seem that there ought to be 

 the same dissatisfaction over a clipped 

 wing. Right here it might not be out 

 of place to admit that the idea has been 

 advanced that a clipped queen is 

 sooner superseded than is one that has 

 not been clipped, but then, bees cer- 

 tainly do not at once begin to take steps 

 for supersedure. Once more, I have 

 several times had queens that were 

 cripples. The handling of the cell 

 while the queen was immature, or 

 something, had so injured the queen 

 that one leg would be shriveled and 

 useless. Such queens have done good 

 service in the hive for a whole season 

 with no attempts at supersedure. All 

 these things make me wonder how uni- 

 versally this plan would prove a suc- 

 cess. On the other hand, I have known 

 Mr. Broderick many years, and have 

 every confidence in him. The sug- 

 gestions that he makes in regard to 

 queen rearing are certainly most ex- 

 cellent, and, if this peculiar feature 

 that he describes should prove to be 

 effectual under various conditions, and 

 in other hands, it would work achange 

 in queen rearing. It certainly is 

 worthy of trial, and, with thiscaution- 

 tionary prelude, I copy the article, 

 which reads as follows: 



Mr. Harr3^ Greeves, on page 35o, 

 expresses the wish that some one 

 would start up the queen rearing dis- 

 cussion again. For the benefit of Mr. 

 Greeves and others who are interested 



