280 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



the "Doolittle plan." Shook bees 

 into a wire cloth box, placed them 

 in a cool room over night, let the 

 queen run in, next day, and 

 "dumped" them in front of a hive 

 at night ; at the same moment, find- 

 ing the queen balled — whether from 

 good or evil intention, on the part 

 of the bees, is more than I can 

 tell — caged the queen in Klimitz 

 cage, closed with '' Good" candy, 

 and the bees appeared to ball the 

 cage. Then closed the cage en- 

 trance firmly with wax, and left 

 above the fi-ames three days. Bees 

 appearing somewhat more quiet, 1 

 then removed most of the wax, and 

 replaced the cage, and did not 

 touch the hive for a w^eek. What 

 was my surprise, at then finding 

 the cage entrance sealed up nicely, 

 queen inside, brisk as a cricket. 

 Again removed most of the wax, 

 replacing cage, this time leaving 

 cnl^' a few particles of wax. Some 

 two weeks after found, what I took 

 to be, an immature queen, thrown 

 out at entrance. Supposed, of 

 course my fine queen had been su- 

 perseded ; but later, found her all 

 right with quantities of brood in 

 all stages. Also found several im- 

 mature drones in worker cells, on 

 a comb taken from hive containing 

 laying worker. I had mistaken 

 one of these slender immature 

 drones for a queen. In introducing, 

 I tried to follow Mr. Doolittle's di- 

 rections. But Mephisto, who can 

 always be depended on to do the 

 right thing at the right time, opened 

 the blinds and curtains of the room 

 where the bees were ; — also the 

 door to an adjoining warm room, — 

 as he said, — to give the poor 

 things light and warmth. 



For introducing a second queen 

 I went to a very heavy colony, — 

 two story — with zinc-board be- 

 tween the two. Carried away the 

 lower story to a stand, where was 

 a laying worker, and united it with 

 that, thus safely settling that 



trouble. The returning bees, Avith 

 those in the upper story, made a 

 fine nucleus, to which, after three 

 days, the queen was safel}'^ intro- 

 duced, by being placed over the 

 frames, in cage closed with candy. 

 Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin. 



CURRENT TOPICS. 



Samuel Cushman. 



THEORY AND PRACTICE. 



The articles on the "Production 

 of Honey" in the June number of 

 the "Api" were a great treat. 

 Without doubt this collection of 

 essays represents the best of the va- 

 rious methods followed in this coun- 

 try. As Doctor Tinker described 

 a system similar to the one I have 

 followed, his article was the one 

 most appreciated by me. 



For two seasons I have used 

 shallow hives of closed-end, hanging 

 frames (Hoffman style). Cases or 

 hives are aliout the depth of the 

 regular Langstroth hive and the 

 more I use them the better I like 

 them. I can remove, interchange 

 and tier up hives with much great- 

 er ease than with the full depth 

 hive, as there is but half the weight 

 to lift. These shallow hives take 

 brood-frames or wide frames, hold- 

 ing one tier of sections, as may be 

 needed. I also use the full depth 

 Langstroth hive in my apiaries, 

 and these shallow hives may be 

 •used on them for surplus stories, 

 either with brood-combs for ex- 

 tracting or wide frames of sections 

 and two empty bodies will hold 

 the regular L. -frame, leaving a 

 double bee space below. 



By the use of division-boards a 

 shallow case may be quickh' made 

 to hold three nucleus colonies, one 

 to tl}^ out at each end and the other 

 at a hole in the side. This we have 



