144 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



August 



of a half-dopth co;ub. This is then given 

 to the confined bees, together with 

 combs of honey and pollen, and at night 

 the hive is set out of doors and the bees 

 released. When the cells are nearly 

 ready to hatch they are cut off, caged 

 and returned to the bees. The young 

 queens are later given to nuclei, and as 

 soon as they begin laying they are used 

 where wanted. 



With any method we must have a 

 colony for cell-building (the "upper 

 story" plan may do to potter with, but is 

 not suitable if one wants more than two 

 or three queens). Also by any method 

 we must have nuclei for the young 

 queens, so the difference in labor between 

 the Alley and the "cell-cup" plans cen- 

 ters in getting the eggs or larvte ready 

 for the cell-building bees. Mr. Alley 

 recently in my presence got eggs for 

 sixty queens started in eight minutes, 

 and this included lighting an oil stove to 

 melt the wax, getting the eggs from the 

 breeding-queen, cutting up, preparing 

 the strips, and giving them and the other 

 combs to the cell-builders. Certainly 

 no one will pretend to be able to make 

 sixty cell-cups, stock them with larvae 

 and get them to the bees in any such 

 time. 



Mr. Alley's system produces as fine 

 queens as can be reared by any plan 

 now known and is used by many of the 

 leading queen-breeders in this and foreign 

 countries. I saw at Mr. Alley's a lot of 

 young queeus and from their size I 

 thought that they were laying queens 

 recently caged, until he informed me to 

 the contrary. As the "Adels" which he 

 raises are not exceptionally large bees, 

 the size of those queens could only be 

 attributed to the method of rearing. 



On the quality of our queens depends 

 the quality of our colonies, and if this is 

 not of the highest, our success is limited 

 accordingly. Also, inferior queens 

 mean bees less able to resist disease. I 

 am not in sympathy with those persons 

 who decry the departing from "Nature's 

 ways," for our whole system of bee- 



culture is a departure from it. There 

 are certain fundamental laws which 

 must be observed in all our dealings 

 with Nature; but as long as we do so, 

 we may vary the details of our proced- 

 ure to suit our convenience. By the 

 "cell-cup" plan, perhaps as perfect 

 queens can be produced as by any other; 

 but in the hands of any person but those 

 of an expert, there are many chances of 

 producing inferior queens. Queen- 

 rearing is a branch of our industry that 

 is entitled to our utmost thought and 

 care. 



Providence, R. I., June 28, 1901. 



Direct not him whose way himself will 



choose, 

 'Tis breath thou lack'st and that breath 



wilt thou lose. — Shakespeare. 



PREPARING HONEY FOR MARKET. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



BY the time this reaches the readers 

 of The Americax Bee-keepeb, 

 the larger part of the white comb 

 honey crop will be off the hives and the 

 apiarist will be thinking of how he will 

 put it up for market, in order that it may 

 sell at the highest possible price. And 

 one of the requisites toward a good 

 price is to take the honey from the hives 

 as soon as it is sulficitmtly ripened, 

 which is generally the case as soon as 

 each section has the comb in jt tho- 

 roughly sealed over ; and if taken off 

 when so sealed the combs will have that 

 beautiful white appearance which is so 

 captivating to the eye. 



I consider it a great mistake to leave 

 section honey on the hive very long 

 after the combs in them are fully capped 

 over, as the little extra ripening of the 

 honey which may take place later on, 

 cannot in any measure compensate for 

 the dingy appearance which the capping 

 to the combs will assume. And if the tem- 

 perature of the room in which the honey 

 is stored, when off the hive, be kept at 

 from 8.5 to 95 degrees, the honey will 

 ripen just as thoroughly and just as 



