1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



799 



take queens from the hive in the height of egg - 

 laying, they are in better shape because their 

 laying capacity is limited to the surface of two 

 ordinary sections. 



This plan was given in Gleanings for May 

 15, 1894, page 407; and in the August Review 

 Mr. Hutchinson writes of it as used in his 

 apiary, as follows: 



Queens in large numbers are now being kept in 

 the Rcrii'w apiary bi' means of tlie Atchley plan. 

 An old-style Heddon super is divided into eight 

 compartments, three untlnished sections and a cag- 

 ed queen placed in eacii compartment, and the 

 super placed over a queenless colony. The bees 

 rush up and cluster around the queen and between 

 the sections. Just at dusk the super is placed upon 

 a bottom-board having a raised rim around the out- 

 side, also strips across the center to correspond 

 with the divisions in tlie case, and carried to a new 

 stand in some shady secluded spot. Each little 

 compartment is furnished with an entrance cut 

 through the rim around the outside of the bottom- 

 board. A piece of queen-excluding metal, with a 

 single opening, is phicei in each entrance. Each 

 little hive is furnished with a separate cover, and 

 over all is laid a flat board cover. The next day at 

 dusk the queens are released. 1 have yet to have a 

 queen killed in one of these little clusters. Robbers 

 give no trouble whatever. It isn't that they do not 

 find the hives, as I often see them "snooping" 

 around them, but tliey seem to hesitate about 

 crawling through tlie perforated metal when there 

 is any opposition back of it. This plan keeps the 

 queens in the best possible condition for shipment, 

 and enables me to keep a stock of queens on hand 

 all ready for immediate shipment. 



I was very enthusiastic over this new method 

 of keeping queens, and determined to put it in- 

 to practice as soon as I arrived home, but 

 somehow I did not get around to it; but it 

 shall be tried ne.Kt year — not to determine 

 whether it will work, for lam satisfied of that 

 already. 



I might say, by way of parenthesis, that A. I. 

 R. tried these small nuclei many years ago; 

 but he was continually bothered by their being 

 either robbed out, or else by their swarming 

 out of their own will. But you see the Atchleys 

 have overcome both difficulties by reducing 

 the entrance to the size of a single hole of ex- 

 cluder zinc. This is large enough for the 

 workers to pass in and out, but just small 

 enough to make it risky for robbers to try to 

 get through and get out alive. Well, suppose 

 the little colony, or, better, little nucleus, de- 

 cides to swarm. All right— let it swarm. The 

 queen can not pass the metal, and they will 

 come back. But even if they should fail to do 

 this, there will be bees enough left to take care 

 of the queen. 



After talking over some of our experiences in 

 the line of getting out bee-journals we repaired 

 to the barn, where I had left my wheel, and 

 prepared for another run. Lapeer, the home of 

 R. L. Taylor, was about .'O miles due east; but 



it was over a road of Michigan sand. As soon 

 as I heard this I decided to take a train, and 

 wisely too. On arriving at Lapeer I found I 

 had only two hours between trains, for it was 

 necessary for me to go back to Flint in order 

 that I might take another train that would 

 carry me over the ocean of sand to Manistee, 

 Mich. Mr. Taylor lives about a mile from the 

 depot, I should judge. It did not take me long 

 to find his home, a handsome residence near 

 the outskirts of the town. I wheeled into the 

 yard, and there I met Mr. Taylor reading his 

 morning paper, comfortably seated in an easy- 

 chair on the lawn. 



I explained that there were only two hours be- 

 tween the trains. Grasping the situation at 

 once, he proceeded to make the best of the time 

 at my disposal. So, just before dinner we took 

 a ramble over his fruit-farm. I was surprised 

 to note the extent, variety, and perfection of 

 the fruit that he was growing. How often we 

 know bee-keepers as bee-keepers, but are en- 

 tirely ignorant of the fact that they have made 

 successes in other lines of rural industries! So 

 in this case, I think our readers will be glad to 

 know that Mr. Taylor is not only well up on 

 the subject of bees, but in fruit-growing— that 

 is, if I may judge from the old rule, " By their 

 fruits ye shall know them." 



Well, after we had taken a stroll over the 

 farm, my eyes rested on some queer sort of pits 

 in a side-hill in a little grove. " What do those 

 pits mean?" Mr. Taylor smiled a little, and 

 remarked that the previous owner was a spir- 

 itualist, and that he had been informed by the 

 spirits that a quantity of treasure was buried 

 somewhere in this hill-slope. The numerous 

 pits that had been dug here and there, only to 

 be abandoned, plainly attested that the digger 

 fully believed that the spirits had told him the 

 truth. But Mr. Taylor, it seems, instead of 

 going crazy over the same idea, when he came 

 into possession of the land, dug the wealth out 

 of the soil by a far more rational method; i. e., 

 in the production of fine crops by the "sweat of 

 the brow." 



After dinner we employed the short time that 

 was left us, in the bee-shop and apiary. In the 

 former, Mr. Taylor showed me crates of honey, 

 individual sections of which contained various 

 kinds of foundation. The object of the experi- 

 ment was to determine what make and what 

 weight would give the most honey per section 

 or per crate. It was plainly evident that the 

 Given, as could be seen from the bulged combs 

 which had been built from that foundation, 

 was ahead, and that the combs from the Van 

 Deusen flat-bottom was quite a little behind 

 the other grades. This was shown by the fact 

 that the combs in the last named were scarcely 

 ever built out even to the face of the sections. 

 " Why," said I, " Mr. Taylor, this is worthy of 

 being carefully photographed, because a photo- 

 graph can not be prejudiced, nor can it mis- 



