THE AMERICAN APIGULTURIST. 



105 



Ivii to centre" siiys Mr. Alley. Thus 

 the loiuling" men in the fraternit}' are 

 more and more coining to the conclu- 

 sion that one and three-eighths is the 

 [jroper distance. 



The old reliable American Bee 

 Joitrmd in its issue for A|)ril 26 con- 

 tains one of the neatest, brightest, 

 heai'tiest commendatory notices that 

 we have seen for many a day. Brother 

 Newman knows how to say these 

 things and his good opinion of the 

 "■Ai'j" is doubtless highly appreciated 

 by all who help to make it what it is. 

 The Americ(()iBee Jomiial is certainly 

 the "wheel lioi'se" of l)ee jonrnaldom. 



Brotlier Kelly probably lias reference to 

 the following.— Ei).] 



,e6g=-Tho AriCULTUKiST for April is on our desk. 

 It IS, as usual, filled will) spicy reading tor bee- 

 lieepers. The AricULTUUiST is fully up with tlie 

 limes, and it is a pleasure to read every copy as 

 it comes to hand. It richlv deserves its success. 

 — Am. Bee Journal, April 26. 



Mr. Doolittle says that "not nearly 

 as nice coml) is built when a colony 

 has no laying queen in the hive." This 

 seems to indicate that it is a mistake 

 to cage the queen to prevent increase. 



It strikes us that Mr. Doolittle should 

 know that queeuless bees build all or 

 nearly all drone-comb. If a hive is opened 

 unii tlie bees found bnilding little patches 

 of drone comb, It is a sure indication 

 that the colony is queeuless. Of course, 

 this does not apply to all cases. When a 

 sti'ong colony is hard pressed for drone- 

 comb they will make little patches of it in 

 most any part of the hive; but such comb 

 wih have eggs or brood in the cells, while 

 in the queenless colony there will be 

 neither. 



If a colony is supposed to be queeuless 

 just give the bees a chance to build comb. 

 Place an empty frame in the centre of the 

 brood-nest, and feed the bees some. If 

 worker coiub is made the colony has a 

 queen; if drone comb is built, it has no 

 queens. — Ei:).] 



A writer in the Guide claims that 

 clipping the queen's wings leads to 

 her supersedure before she fails on ac- 

 count of age. Yes, true enough, and 

 it sometimes leads to her death in a 

 month or two after her wings are re- 

 moved. A few leading bee men still 

 practise clipping the queen, but it is 



my opinion that it will be abandoned 

 sooner or later by progressive bee- 

 keepei's. What do you thiitk about 

 it, Mr. Alley? 



You are just right, friend K. Mr. Doolit- 

 tle is the only strong advocate of clipping 

 queens' wings. Mr.' D. is the only person 

 to rear queens by transferring larva from 

 one cell to an other to obtain queen cells. 

 Most queen dealers use a more practical, 

 convenient and natural way. Yes, and 

 who ever saw in print one word commend- 

 atory of Mr. Doolittle's queens? This only 

 shows that "with the best method for rear- 

 ingqueens," Mr. D. ships no better (if as 

 good) queens than other people. 



miuccn^brtc^era' ?!) apartment. 



Conducted by e. l. pkatt. 



Equalization and Increase. 



A simple method of strengthening 

 weak hives in the spring is to simply 

 change places with one of the strong- 

 est, that is, providing they have an 

 active young queen and the Weather 

 is not too cool. 



I have been asked, probably a thous- 

 and times, how to form a nucleus col- 

 ony and have it do well enougii to 

 build up strong for winter. The sim- 

 plest method I know of is to take from 

 some stock its queen and one fraufe 

 of brood and bees and place them in 

 an empty hive filled out with full sheets 

 of foundation. Place this hive on the 

 stand of some colony when in full 

 flight. Give the queenless colony a 

 cell or, better, a young laying queen. 

 If too many bees leave the full hive 

 they should be changed back until the 

 desired number are in both hives. 



Another plan is to remove all bees 

 from their combs during a harvest 

 and let them run into a hive filled out 

 with full sheets of foundation. (If 

 done I)efore a storm the}' would starve 

 unless a combof honey is given them.) 

 Place all the capped brood and one 

 or two frames of hone}' in another hive 

 and place it on the stand of your 

 strongest colony. You can then give 



