THE AMERICA]^ APICULTURIST. 



175 



The Jones method of getting queen cells. 



Tlieiv is jn-oliably no l)etti;i' time tlian in 

 Aua;ust and Soptcmber for requeening an 

 apiary, or introduc-ini? new blood by tlie 

 pureliase of a few queens. At iliis time 

 of tlie year queens are plentiful and clieap, 

 tlie beekeeper lias time to attend to their 

 introduetion, while the leaving of a colony 

 quecnless a few days is less objeetionable 

 than it would be before the honey harvest. 

 Considerable care is necessary, however, 

 to rear good queens at this season of the 

 year. Simply removing the queen from a 

 colony seldom results in securing the best 

 of queens at any time of the year; queens 

 thus reared after the honey harvest is 

 over and past arc "pretty poor sticks." 

 We have always raised the finest queens, 

 at any time, Ijy the Jones method. 



Take all the brood and the queen from a 

 colony, giving it a nice comb in which 

 eggs from a choice queen are ju.-t hatch- 

 ing, cutting a few holes in the comb, then 

 shake all the bees from half the coml)s of 

 two or three colonies, in front of the hive 

 where the cells are to be built. We thus 

 get a great mass of bees with oulj^ a few 

 larvje to feed ; the hive is jammed so full 

 tlutt some of the bees are crowded out at 

 the entrance most of the time. Some of you 

 ma}' think this an expensi\^ way of get- 

 ting cells ; but try it once ; and when you 

 come to cutting them out you will consider 

 it cheap. The bees build a large number 

 of cells, the queens hatch about a day 

 sooner and begin hiying sooner; besides, 

 they are large, strong and well developed. 

 We would just as soon have queens reared 

 iu this manner, during the next two 

 months, as any we ever had. — 2'he Bee- 

 keepers' Beview. 



The above way is the "helter-skelter" 

 method of rearing queens, but, wdiy it is 

 called the " Jones method " is more than 

 I can understand, unless it is because 

 Jones sticks to an old worn out method 

 longer than most other men. The same 

 method as above was practised in the Bay 

 State Apiary more than twenty years ago, 

 with this ditference — instead of putting 

 all the young bees in to start with, they 

 were added daily until the fourth day. This 

 was done not only to ol)tain large queens, 

 but to get a large number of cells as well ; 

 each new lot of bees added would start 

 other cells, l^y the method now used in 

 the Hay State Apiary, all the cells desired 

 can be obtained and by improved methods, 

 and there is no necessity for rearing cells 

 by the so-called Jones method. I am quite 

 sure that I described the al)ove method in 

 the American Bee Journal nearly twenty 

 years ago. 



That is the plan to rear queens by those 



who can get the best results from it. 

 It does not suit me, as I cannot afford to 

 rear (]Ueens by a method that takes so 

 much time, laljor and is so uncertain as to 

 the numl)er of cells that will be produced. 

 Tlie plan given in the Handy IJook will 

 give a certain numlier of cells every time ; 

 there is no uncertainty about it. 



Wh}' rear queens in that old-fashioned 

 way w'hen there are so many i)etter 

 plans? Why rear queens by having the 

 cells built in clusters? Why cut and hack 

 nice brood combs in order to get a few 

 queens? Why not use a method by which 

 a certain number of cells are sure to be 

 reared every time and those that will pro- 

 duce queens of the best quality, and at the 

 same time have them all biult in rows and 

 just wlieie most desirable in the hive? 



The attention of those wdio propose to 

 rear queens is called to the remarks of the 

 manager on page 174 iu this issue. I 

 now have a fine lot of cells built by the 

 described method, riease understantl that 

 when I state that I rear queens in full col- 

 onies without removing the queen from the 

 hive, I mean just what I say. The queen 

 is not caged, nor is theie any device used 

 to confine her to any particular combs or 

 part of the hive, as she has tlie freedom 

 of the combs exactly the same as when 

 no queens are being reared. There is noth- 

 ing that even smells of humbug about 

 this. 



The plan i s a thoroughly practical one and 

 those who can rear queens by any method 

 can make this a success. Some of the ad- 

 vantages over the old methods are these : 

 1. Queens are reared practically tmder the 

 swarming impulse. '2. It is an immense 

 saving in bees. 3. No hive will be queen- 

 less nor does it interfere with the woi'king 

 of the colony, whether the bees are used 

 for comb or extracted honey. 



A Freak in the Apiary. 



July 10, I introduced to a small colony, 

 Avhat I supposed was a pure Italian queen. 

 To-day I can show the handsomest colony 

 of Albino bees to be found iu this country. 

 Can any one tell how this happened? There 

 were no Albino bees in myapiarj-, and the 

 other queens reared at the same time do 

 not show an J' marking but that of pure 

 Italian. 



0.iOne, Ai'k. 

 Mu. Allky: The drone-and-queeu trap 

 has been worth ^25 to me. 



J. W. Taylok. 



