1900 



TEE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



51 



packing. 5th question — How to keep 

 moths out of combs? Answer: Place an 

 empty brood chamber on top of a stack of 

 combs, and therein a dish with a little 

 bisulphide of carbon, then cover uptight; 

 the liquid will transform into gas and kill 

 everything living within the stack of 

 hives. 6th question — Have you used 

 drone traps to control swarming exten- 

 sively? Answer: No; seem too much of a 

 hindrance to the worker bees. 



A paper, read by F. Griener, treated of 

 the cotnb honey super. Different supers 

 were discussed and exhibited. He pre- 

 fers the wide-frame super, wants his 

 sections protected on all four sides; he 

 thinks then there will be no section clean- 

 ing machine necessary. 



Editor York wonders that the bee- 

 keepers of America are being baffled by 

 as small a thing as a section cleaner, 

 when the case may be all together differ- 

 ent; at least Greiner imagines that such a 

 thing may not be regarded as essential b}- 

 the majority of bee-keepers. 



On the evening of the first day Prof. 

 Benton gave an illustrated lecture (magic 

 lantern ) on the structure of the honey 

 bee, also spoke of the relationship of the 

 bee to agriculture. The lecture was 

 given in the large and commodious 

 school-hall before a mixed audience; it 

 was instructive and interesting and was 

 listened to closely. Many present ex- 

 pressed their pleasure and gratification, 

 among them the principal and professors 

 of the school. 



On the second day Mr. Benton related 

 his experience in queen rearing, .spoke 

 about shipping and introducing cages, etc. 

 He had experimented with all manner of 

 artificial queen cups The gauze cells 

 were accepted most readily and were 

 made as follows; Little squares of ordi- 

 nary wire screen were pressed into siiit- 

 able molds; a wire nail was next pushed 

 through each one from the inside, thus 

 forming a handle by which they could be 

 manipulated. The gauze wa? then trim- 

 med off with a pair of shears to about the 

 shape and size of a just-started q leen- 



cell, then dipped in hot wax ofte«i enough 

 to make each one rather substantial. 

 The cells were fastened to the top bars 

 by pushing the nails into the soft wood 

 after a little royal jelly had been placed 

 into each cell and a young larva. Mr. B. 

 had no trouble to have these cells ac- 

 cepted and built out by the bees. The 

 cells, after the queens had hatched, were 

 gathered up and used again when the 

 occasion demanded it. 



In using substitutes for royal jelly the 

 Professor had not been very successful , 

 but had succeeded in transferring larvae 

 without any jelly. 



Mr. Benton pronounced the shipping 

 cage as not well suited for introducing 

 queens, and he favored a cage similar to 

 the one illustrated in Gleanings and the 

 Review about a year ago, made from wire- 

 cloth of rather stiff wires. He described 

 another cage which he had tried. It was 

 made of a wooden disk, perhaps two 

 inches in diameter. A row of holes wag 

 punched through, all the way along with, 

 in one-fourth inch of the periphery. 

 Then wire nails were pushed through the 

 holes, forming a very substantial cage, 

 that would well stand to be pushed part 

 way into the toughest comb. It seemed, 

 however, that worker bees would .some- 

 times reach through the long spaces be- 

 tween the nails and catch hold of the 

 queen's legs before they had become well 

 acquainted. A mutilated queen had thus 

 been sometimes the result. 



Among other things there were ex- 

 hibited several different _kinds and 

 shades of honey, in tall, no bee-way 

 sections. The sampling took place in the 

 Web.ster House dining hall. It .so hap- 

 pened that the exhibitor was saved the 

 painful necessity of carrying his case of 

 honey back home again; janitors, editors 

 of the local press and some of the bee. 

 keeping friends, who .seemed to take a 

 special liking to this or that kind of the 

 sweet, came in for a share, and so the 

 exhibitor was luckily relieved of his 

 burden. 



