690 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 1. 



of the artificial-cell methods, and, I am sure, 

 no finer queens could be produced by any other 

 method. 



SMALL HIVES FOR QUEEN-REARING. 



Some writers during the present year have 

 mentioned the matter of small hives for rearing 

 queens in. Several of these writers have re- 

 ferred to the subject in the pages of Glean- 

 ings. It is generally conceded that the small 

 hives are unsatisfactory ; my experience is, 

 that they should not be the chief hive used for 

 this purpose. I find that a hive about the size 

 of that used by Mr. Doolittleist,he one that suits 

 me best. Still, as they require so much comb 

 space, and as I consiier the combs too valuable 

 for use in an apiary run principally for extract- 

 ed honey, I devised a modification of the Doo- 

 little plan. 



During the height of the honey-flow, which is 

 about the time when the bees commence to 

 swarm, a very small hive can be used to advan- 

 tage. From this on to about the time that the 

 bees commence to drive the drones out of the 

 hives, which here is usually about the middle 

 of July, these hives can be kept in use. After 

 that time they should be broken up. The way 

 I have done to form these small hives is to di- 

 vide one of the section-supers of a Dovetailed 

 hive in two by putting a division-board across 

 the super the short way thereof. I fill this 

 super with small frames that hang on rabbets. 

 Comb foundation should be placed in these 

 frames so that the bees may the more quickly 

 draw them out. Being placed upon a hive 

 that is ready to store surplus honey, one will 

 soon have a lot of nice combs, some of which 

 should be filled with honey, while some should 

 be only about half drawn out. 



Three or four of these combs are placed in 

 small hives made to take such a sized comb. 

 As soon as a swarm has issued I get some of 

 my small hives ready by taking as many frames 

 as T require out of a super, and place them in 

 my hives. They are now set where I intend 

 the hives to remain while rearing queens. I 

 next take a queen that has just hatched out, 

 and cage her and leave her in a shaded place 

 alongside of the nucleus hive that I am about 

 to form. I then take half a pint of bees from the 

 swarm that has clustered upon a tree near by. 

 and dump them either upon the frames of the 

 little hive or at the entrance. T prefer to 

 empty them right into the hive if I know that 

 they have not a queen with them; otherwise it 

 is safer to turn them out at the entrance and 

 watch them as they run into the hive, so that, 

 if a queen is with them, she should be removed, 

 and the queen that is in the cage near by re- 

 leased and allowed to run in with the bees. 

 This young queen should be liberated at the 

 time the bees are introduced at the top of the 

 frames if the bees are thus placed in the nu- 

 cleus. 



I have found this a much easier way of form- 



ing nuclei than any other way that I have 

 tried. Should one have sufficient young queens, 

 a number of these small hives can be made up 

 out of a large swarm. One can get very fine 

 queens by taking the cells from a hive of one of 

 his best Italian colonies that has just thrown 

 oflf its second swarm, and using them for pulled 

 queens. I have tried this way several times to 

 my entire satisfaction. I could not wish for a 

 more desirable way of raising queens. 



These small hives should be treated in the 

 same way, so far as the management is con- 

 cerned, as the larger hives should. The only 

 thing one has to look out for is. that they be 

 well provisioned with honey. When they are 

 found to be short, all one has to do is to take a 

 frame of honey from the super where the small 

 frames are drawn out. and exchange it for one 

 of the frames in the nucleus that is short of 

 stores. Sometimes it may be necessary to add 

 a frame of brood to one of these hives so as to 

 keep up its strength. This is an easy matter 

 to do ; for, by allowing the queen in the hive, 

 where the aforesaid combs are prepared, to 

 have access to them, she will fill some of them 

 with eggs, and consequently it will be neces- 

 sary to remove only one of these frames of 

 brood to the nucleus requiring brood. 



Toward the end of the season, or about the 

 time that the bees begin todrive out the drones, 

 as I have already stated, it will be time to 

 break up these nuolei, as about this time it is 

 probable that robbers will be preying upon 

 them. These small hives are also useful for 

 keeping surplus queens in when the queen-rais- 

 er desires to use the larger hive for other pur- 

 poses. 



The use of these little hives will be found a 

 great saving in many ways besides the cheap- 

 ness of their manufacture, to the queen-breed- 

 er. It seems to me that no yard, especially in 

 this State, could well afford to be without them. 



North Temescal. Cal., July 30. 



EENEST R. ROOT. 



THE MANAGING EDITOR'S CAREER AS SKETCH- 



EU BY DR. C. C. MILLER FOR THE 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



As announced editorially, the managing ed- 

 itor and subject of this sketch is making a tour 

 on his wheel through Michigan, Wisconsin, and 

 Illinois. He has doubtless made an unexpected 

 appearance at the door of a goodly number of 

 bee keepers, and I have no doubt that, without 

 exception, he has received a cordial reception. 

 Notwithstanding there have been repeated re- 

 quests for his picture in Gleanings, he has 

 been too modest to accede, and it is without his 

 permission that we gratify the wish of a host 

 of readers in reproducing a picture, and sketch 

 of his career, from the pen of his very warm 

 friend Dr. C. C. Miller, which appeared in the 



