THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



97 



comb ; and where the moth gets in the corah, 

 the, bees cannot get them out, and they will 

 cocoon in the comb." That "the miller will 

 hiy and hutch a thousand eggs in the cocoon, 

 and when hatched the worm destroys Uic bees." 

 He stated also, that a " queen Avill not, come out 

 to pair but once, and if she does not meet the 

 7nale bee^^ on her flight, she will return and be- | 

 come a drone laying queen.'''' I think Ih s ques- j 

 tion will hear invesLigation. I wished him to [ 

 tell me liow the miller or moth paired. He 

 said, ''■they did not pair.'''' Is ibis according to 

 reiison or observation ? Is there not male and j 

 female in all forms of creation ? And is it not j 

 necessary for them to pair, to produce living ' 

 beings of their own species f Can a queen or a | 

 moth produce life or living beings of their own 

 kind, unless mated with the male ? I cannot 

 make the contrary of this comport with my 

 reason or knowledge, and desire a more satis- 

 factory explauaiiou. Will beekeepers discuss 

 the question ? 



The season here has been very unfavorable 

 for liees. J. H. Hadsell. 



Breesport, N. Y. 



[For the American Bee Journal.] 



Suggestions and Theories. 



KESERVE QCKENS. 



Mr. Editor: — In another article I promised 

 to give you an original plan for Iteeping re- 

 serve queens. 



I need not dwell on the many advantages to 

 be secured by Iteeping on hand at all times a 

 good supply of such queens, as it may be seen 

 at a glance Avliat a nice thing it would be, in all 

 cases of artificial swarming, or in case of find- 

 ing colonies queenless. 



It would also be of still greater use to those 

 who are raising queens for market. But the 

 questions — " Cun it be done ?" and "How?" 

 are what we want to consider in this article. 



Before giving you the plan, I will give you 

 an idea to meditate upon, when you have no- 

 thing else to do. I originate a great many 

 plans and ideas which would perhaps lead to 

 great discoveries (?), if they were only carried 

 out — which is just the thing that I never get 

 time to do ! Therefore I propose that we have 

 some responsible and capable person appointed 

 or elected as general Bee-ologist or Apiologist, 

 to work on the principle of the numerous State 

 entomologists, and have him paid (by Uncle 

 Sam, or some State Government, I suppose, as 

 I don't know who else would pay him) a liberal 

 salary ; and then just let him experiment upon 

 and carry out the new ideas that "we bee- 

 keepers" originate ! Why, Mr. Editor, I have 

 dozens of them already waiting for a trial ! and 

 I presume that there are man}' others all over 

 the United States in exactly the, same fix. 



Now what I am going to give in this article 

 is nothing more than ore of these very ideas. 

 It has never been tried, to my know^ledge, and 

 everybody is at liberty to try it as soon as he 

 pleases ! 



First, then, I will tell you how the idea origi- 



nated. When a second or a third swarm issues, 

 it is of'en HCCon>pnnied by at least. two or liiree, 

 and sometimes lialf a dozen cr moce, young 

 queens. These queens, it left in the swarm, 

 will remain there until killed or diiven out ly 

 one another. The worker bees will not kill 

 them, when tliey are all hatched in the same 

 hive. 



From this I reasoned that if each queen, m ith 

 a few workers, were put into a sei)arate cnge, 

 and these cages all introduced to a queenless 

 colony, they would. ali be fed or cared for. 

 Thus far I have tried, and it has worked well 

 for a time. But these workers will not live 

 forever shut in those cages. So to remedy this, 

 I devised the follinving which is my plan. 



Take, for instance, a Langstroth frame, say 

 about eighteen inches by ten ; or, rather, take 

 one of the frames that you are using, let the 

 shape and size be what it may — I simply give 

 this size for illustration. Cut a piece of wire 

 cloth— an article which every beekeeper should 

 possess — into two strips, ench eighteen inches 

 in length by about seven in width. Tack one 

 of these pieces on the middle of one side of the 

 frame — that is, letting the frame extend above 

 and below the wire one and a half inches. Now 

 prepare fifteen slats or sticks, ^ inch by | (or 

 the width of the end pieces of the frame); lay 

 these slats edgewise upon the wire cloth, par- 

 allel with the end of the frame, one inch apart. 

 If not enough divisions are thus made, each one 

 can be again divided crosswise in the center, 

 thereby doubling the number. Now tack your 

 other piece of wire cloth up<m this side of the 

 frame, and you will have a frame lull of queen 

 cages. Each opening is to have a separate 

 stopper, and your queen-keeper is ready for use. 



When you get a lot of surplus queens on 

 hand, put one queen and about a dozen workers 

 into each cage. Now divide a hive, which this 

 frame is supposed to fit, into two parts, by in- 

 serting a division board in such a manner" that 

 the smaller division be just large enough to 

 contain three similar frames. Two of these 

 frames are to contain honey and sealed brood, 

 and are to be placed one on each side of your 

 cage frame, and a goodly number of bees sup- 

 plied. 



The larger division of this hive is to contain 

 a swarm of l)ees wilh a fertile queen. Then as 

 often as the combs of the smaller division get 

 empty, they should be exchanged Avith the 

 larger for combs containing sealed brood. Or 

 perhaps after these queens had been shut in 

 company with these bees for a week or so, one 

 of them might be liberated to supply the divi- 

 sion with eggs Why not ? What are they 

 going to do about it? The bees loose in tins 

 liive will feed the bees confined in the cages, 

 and the}^ will feed their respective queens ! Of 

 course the bees in each cage should be changed 

 occasionally, as they might die ! Or, what 

 would be still better, make an opening to each 

 of these cages five thirty seconds of an inch 

 high, as spoken of by Mr. Lingstroth and 

 others, to prevent swarming (" Hive and Honey 

 Bee," page 174, third edition.) This will allow 

 the workers to go out and in the cages, but con- 

 fine the queens. 



