I 



1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



81 



duys old. Yes, here is oiu^ just cutting her way 

 out. I will assist her.'' 



" Manum, why don't you introduce tiie cell 

 and let her hatch in the hive? That is the way 

 I have done several times. I first melt a little 

 wax on my hot smoker-tube, and seal over the 

 end of the cell and cause her to gnaw her way 

 out again." 



" Mr. Cox, I dare not do that way. I used to 

 do so. but I now prefer to allow the young 

 queen to hatch, that I may see her full form 

 before introducing her; because I often find 

 young queens without wings or with imperfect 

 wings, while some of them are small, inferior 

 queens, even from large cells; and, furthermore, 

 I am particular as to the form of my queens 

 more than I am about the color. I want strong 

 robust-looking queens. I don't like long, slim, 

 peaked queens, as I have an idea that the work- 

 ers from such long slim queens are not as large, 

 as a rule, as those from broader, thicker, stout- 

 er queens. I look to my queens for a honey 

 crop more than to any thing else about the api- 

 ary." 



" INIanum, I want to know why you shook 

 those bees in front of the hive. You did not 

 tell me."' 



"Oh! excuse me, I switched off on to an- 

 other track, and lost sight of your question en- 

 tirely. I will now show you. Here is the vir- 

 gin queen, which I will drop among the bees 

 that are now running into their hive at a lively 

 rate. You see she is as lively as you please, 

 and they pay no attention to her. I shook the 

 bees out for this purpose, to draw their atten- 

 tion, as It were, to one purpose — that of getting 

 back into their hive as soon as possible; and up- 

 on returning they find they have a queen with 

 them which they accept as readily at this stage 

 as they did the first queen given them, and 

 which is now lost. I find this much the safest 

 plan after a colony has lost one queen. Had I 

 dropped a queen three or four days old into 

 their hive without disturbing them, as I did by 

 shaking them on the ground, they might have 

 balled her — in fact, two out of five would be 

 balled; hence this precaution in my out-api- 

 aries, where I visit them only once a week." 



"Well, there, Manum, it is 11 o'clock, and I 

 must hurry home." 



" Now, Mr. Daggett, you have returned just 

 in time, as I am now ready to open up my new- 

 siyle nuclei. You will observe this hive is 

 "tiered up," or, rather, the cap to the outside 

 case is raised four inches, resting upon four 

 blocks, one at each corner. This is to allow the 

 bees and young queens to fly out of the upper 

 story, and still have a covering over them to 

 protect the inner hive from the sun and storms. 

 There, this upper story is simply a sliallow 

 brood-chamber, half tlie depth of my ordinary 

 chambers, and the same size otherwise. I have 

 a perforated zinc bottom to it, to prevent the 

 old and young queens from passing either up or 



down. This upper story is placed over a full 

 colony which has an extracting-super over it; 

 hence this super is between the main brood- 

 chamber and the nucleus-chamber. There is, 

 therefore, no hindrance to the storing of honey 

 on account of having this nucleus-chamber on 

 the hive. This nucleus, orqueen-rearing cham- 

 ber, has three partitions making four apart- 

 ments. Each apartment holds three frames, 

 and is a nucleus of itself, with itsown entrance, 

 or outlet, where the bees can fly out under the 

 cap of the hive as above stated; and by having 

 the entrances each on a different side, there is 

 no confusion of the bees, as you see each end 

 apartment has an entrance, one on the north 

 side, the other on the south, and one of the cen- 

 ter apartments has its entrance on the west, and 

 the other on the east sides. 



"But, Manum. if you take bees from some 

 other colony for these apartments, will they not 

 quarrel wii'i the main colony below, since they 

 can mingli' together by passing through this 

 zinc bottom".' I can readily see that the warmth 

 from the main colony below is very serviceable 

 in assisting the few bees in these small apart- 

 ments in keeping up a proper temperature cold 

 nights." 



" There is no quarreling, Mr. Daggett, for the 

 very reason that I do not bring bees here from 

 other colonies. I simply make use of the bees 

 belonging to this main colony; and here is 

 where is the gain. I do not have to rob any 

 colony of bees to start my nuclei, by this plan, 

 as the bees from below readily come up and oc- 

 cupy the combs; and to make sure of this I aim 

 to have a little brood in each apartment; and 

 as nearly all the bees that take possession of 

 these small apartments are young, I have no 

 difficulty in making them accept a virgin queen, 

 or, at least, I have succeeded in nearly every 

 trial. While I expect some failures, the gain 

 in the saving of bees for queen-rearing, as well 

 as the even and proper temperature given from 

 below, will more than offset the few failures I 

 may have in introducing virgin queens into 

 these small upper apartments for the purpose of 

 having them fertilized." 



"Are you sure that this perforated zinc will 

 prevent the virgin queens from passing down 

 below?" 



" No, I am not sure; in fact, some, I feel sure, 

 have done that trick; but as there is another 

 zinc under the extracting-super, they are less 

 liable to get down into the brood-chamber 

 where the old queen is." 



"There is another point, Manum, which I 

 wish to bring up in regard to swarming. Will 

 not these virgin queens which are directly over 

 the main colony where the workers have access 

 to either apartment cause undue swarming ?" 



"I think not, as there is quite a space be- 

 tween these small apartments and the main 

 brood-chamber, which space is occupied by am- 

 ple surplus room, and there are four entrances 



