1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CrLTlRE. 



689 



they hatch from said brood, will be consumers 

 after the hoiify-harvest; hence theeij^ht frame, 

 for the production of comb and exuacled 

 honey, in localities where the wliite honey 

 comes on by tlie middle of June, and lasts any- 

 where from a month to six weeks, is laige 

 •enough for breeding-purposes, and just small 

 •enough to make the tiees force nearly all their 

 white honey into the supers — jusi where we 

 want it. 



Now, I think I have answered your questions 

 in the next to the last paragraph, and we nuiy 

 now consider whether the putting-on of tiie 

 extra stories gives the bees just so much extra 

 room to warm up. Well, to a certain extent it 

 doe.s: but we always make a practice of using 

 division-boards ; and. where convt-nient, use 

 enamel cloth or something to lie over the lower 

 set of frames on the cover. Perhaps you think 

 this a nuisance; but it pays; but in the case of 

 comb or extracted honey it is not necessary to 

 add more than half an upper story at a time. 

 In the case of the former, one tier of .-"PCtions 

 will not give a good c.ilony too much ruom to 

 ket'p warm. In tlie c.isi- of the laitni. a half- 

 story with extract ing-frames, (( la Uadant, can 

 be iidded in a similar way wiili ^iIuilar results. 



lint the advocates of shallow brood-chambers 

 will claitu. perhaps, right here, that it is better 

 to have all the brood chaml)ers divisible, and 

 then the cap iciiy of the hive can be increased 

 more gradually, and that those who desire 

 ■eight and ten fratnes of brood capacity can be 

 accommodated by using two or three brood - 

 chambers of the shallow sort. There may be a 

 good deal in this. That being the case, if de- 

 siring to make a change I certaitily should 

 preler to reduce the size of the brood- nest, 

 something after the style of the Heddon, rather 

 than to increase the eight-fratne to ten or 

 twelve frame capacity. 



And now as to the l.iO eight-fr ime or 120 ten- 

 frame hives. You and Mr. Hatch seem to r(.s-- 

 ^uiiic that the ten-fratue colonies will be pro- 

 portionally stronger than tlie eight- frame. 

 With the right sort of manipulation I some- 

 what question this. Uut suppose they are. I 

 should rather lift individually — that is, at 150 

 different times — 150 eight-frame hives — that is, 

 to lift them into a wagon or carry them into 

 the cellar — than 130 ten- frame hives, full of 

 bees, at 130 different times. 



My views, as above stated, are subject to re- 

 vision. I am quite willing to change to the 

 ten or twelve fratnes; or. to go the other way. 

 to shallow brood-chambers, if the logic of 

 events shall in time demonstrate the wisdom of 

 such a change in either direction.— Euxest.1 



SALT FOR QUEEN-CAGE CANDY. 



FOKMIXG SMALL NUCLEI. 



By W. A. Pryal. 



Has any queen-breeder tried salt in the sugar 

 used to make the shipping-candy he sends out 

 with his queens? I find that a small quantity 

 of salt in the candy makes it soft at a time 

 when it would otherwise be hard. This is 

 something that we have all been striving for 

 for some lime. Should others' experience 

 prove the same as mine, then I think we shall 

 have solved one of the most difficult problems 

 in shipping queens long distances. 



The way I came to try this plan was, that I 

 had made up some candy out of very fine 

 sugar, which I had previously heated, and hot 



honey. Both were well mixed; and when they 

 were set aside as finished, the mixture became 

 as hard as stone after it had become cool. It 

 remained in this condition for some days; but 

 as the outside began to absorb the moisture 

 from the air, it became soft. In time the whole 

 mass " melted " down, and was almost as liquid 

 as the honey was that I had used originally in 

 the manufacture of the ■' candy." I attributed 

 the rapid softening of my candy to the large 

 amount of salt that the air in this part of the 

 State is qharged with. The cause of lead paint 

 on buildings being so soon ruined here is said 

 to be due to the saltiness of the atmosphere. 



This knowledge led me to believe that it 

 would be safe to make the candy quite hard 

 for cages that were to be sent on a sea-voyage. 

 The candy would soften about as fast as it was 

 necessary. Had salt been added to the candy 

 before the cage was shipped, the candy would 

 have become too soft; should the candy have 

 been of a soft composition ere the cage is sent 

 off, the candy would also become too soft as 

 soon as it was well on the salt water. For 

 cages that were to be shipped altogether by 

 laud, especially through a hot country, the 

 candy could be salted as much as necessary. 

 Of course, the quantity of salt required for a 

 single cage is comparatively small; but it has 

 a wonderful effect in keeping the candy soft. 

 Owing to the dry season in this State, or more 

 especially in the southern part of the State, I 

 did not have as many calls for queens as I 

 otherwise should, hence I did not have an op- 

 portunity to test this plan of shipping as much 

 as I could have desired. Still, I have tested it 

 sufficiently to satisfy me that it is a great help 

 to queen-breeders. 



During the past season I have experimented 

 with the Doolittle plan of rearing queens. The 

 result of my experience has been such as to 

 cause me to abandon the plan altogether. I 

 tried his cell-cups and transplanted larviB in 

 the way he describes in his interesting book on 

 queen-rearing; but in no case could I get the 

 bees to accept any of them. I carried on these 

 experiments at a time of the year when the 

 bees would be the most likely to accept them. 

 I even tried them after I had removed the 

 queen-cells from the hives that the bees had 

 already started themselves. Possibly, if I 

 were to try this method another year I might 

 be able to get better results. Still, as there 

 was plenty of honey coming in at the times 

 that I devoted to this line of experiments, I am 

 inclined to think I can not achieve any better 

 success another year than I experienced the 

 past season. 



In the many years that I have raised queens 

 for my own use or for commercial purposes, I 

 have never had so good results in getting fine 

 good queens as I have when I have tried the 

 plan mentioned by Simmins, in his " Modern 

 Bee-farm," page 144. It is far easier than any 



