1921 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



225 



water, a second is being dipped by the 

 machine, and i>om the sticks of the 

 third board, which has just been re- 

 moved from the machine, an attend- 

 ant is removing the finished cell-cups. 

 Thus, as fast as one board is ready 

 to be removed, another is ready to be 

 inserted, and the uniformly neat cell- 

 cups are turned out at a rapic? rate. 

 These home-made cell-cups are fas- 

 tened with a drop of melted wax upon 

 thin, flat wooden cell-bases, irstead 

 of upon the well-known cylindiMcal 

 wooden cell-cup bases. Each flat 

 wooden base is about three-fo jrths 

 of an inch square and one-sixteenth 

 of an inch thick. The flat cell-bases 

 are stuck, with wax, upon plain 

 wooden cell-bars three-fourths of an 

 inch wide, and the latter are sup- 

 ported in an ordinary IfLiffrnan 

 frame. In practice it is not found 

 necessary to melt the wax each time 

 in order to fasten these banes to the 

 cell-bars. After they are once coat- 

 ed with beeswax, it is only necessary 

 to press the little bases down firmly 

 upon the bar to make them stick. 

 This may be done most rapidly before 

 the cell-cups are fastened to the 

 bases. The advantages of thpse thin, 

 flat cell-bases are that they may be 

 cheaply made at home in l.ira:e or 

 small numbers, cheaply replaced if 

 lost, and in introducing a ripe cueen- 

 cell into a colony or nucleus by 

 pressing it against a comb, the thin 

 edge of the flat base will mutilate the 

 comb much less than is apt to be the 

 case with the larger cylindrical cell- 

 cup base. 



The author has sometimes made use 

 of the flat cell-cup bases in another 

 way, which may be of interest to those 

 acquainted with the "Alley plan" of 

 obtaining queen-cells on strips of 

 comb or vrith any similar plan of ob- 

 taining queen-cells on new comb. 

 Alley placed a new comb of worker 

 cells in the brood-nest of his breeding 

 queen for about four days, until he 

 obtained eggs and hatching larvae in 

 this comb. He then carefully brushed 

 it free of bees, took it to a warm 

 room, and with a thin, sharp, warm 

 knife, so as not to bruise the comb, 

 he cut it through every other par- 

 allel row of cells into long strips. The 

 cells of the row on one side of each 

 strip were now trimmed, or "cut 

 down to within one-fourth inch of 

 the midrib, and from this row of cells 

 on each strip a row of queen-cells 

 was obtained. Now in case of the 

 Alley plan (or any similar plan) the 

 queen-cells must necessarily be sep- 

 arated and carefully cut from the 

 strip of comb before they can be dis- 

 tributed to different queenless colo- 

 nies or nuclei, or to nursery cages. 

 This distribution of queen-cells can 

 be much more conveniently accom- 

 plished, of course, when the cells are 

 built on separate bases; and it is pos- 

 sible to so modify the Alley plan 

 (for example) as to have queen-cells 

 started on the flat wooden bases with- 

 out the necessity of grafting or us- 

 ing artificial queen-cell cups. Having 

 prepared strips of "cut-down" comb 

 by the Alley plan, carefully cut 

 across these so as to divide them into 

 many small pieces, each containing a 



single cut-down cell. Ten or twelve 

 pieces (with larvae of the same size) 

 are now selected for each cell bar, 

 and one of these little pieces of comb 

 is fastened to each flat cell base on 

 the bar with a drop of wax just above 

 the melting temperature — the un- 

 trimmed side of the little piece of 

 comb having been touched to the 

 drop of wax in evci-y case. By this 

 means each cell base on the bar will 

 present one "cut-down" cell contain- 

 ing its little larva surrounded with 

 royal jelly. When cell bars prepared 

 thus are suspended in a swarm-box 

 hive in the usual way, the bees ac- 

 cept most of the larva in the "cut- 

 down" cells and so start queen-cells 

 on the separate cell bases. Grafting 

 into artificial cell-cups is to be pre- 

 ferred; nevertheless the method just 

 described is practical, and might be 

 used to advantage by those who for 

 any reason find grafting difficult. 

 California. 



TOO MUCH HONEY FOR QUEEN- 

 REARING 



By Nathan Martin 



I was interested in the article en- 

 titled "Too Much Honey," by John 

 Protheroe (March number), and feel 

 prompted to tell you some of my ex- 

 perience along similar lines. It is 

 coming eight years, this spring, since 

 I started beekeeping, with two colo- 

 nies. I now have 48 colonies. 



I was much interested in queen 

 rearing, almost from the start, and 

 feel much indebted to Mr. Doolittle. 

 It appears there is still considerable 

 controversy about this question. I 

 feel convinced that it is far better, 

 to rear the queens than buy them of 

 breeders. I have bought only a few, 

 and always found that queens reared 

 here were superior, in that their colo- 

 nies were better for honey gathering. 

 I run for extracted honey and have 

 averaged over 100 pounds per colony 

 for the past 3 years. I like to have 

 good colonies requeen themselves, 

 which they often do in second or 

 third season. I have had colonies that 

 stored over 150 pounds when queen 

 was in third year, so I have no use for 

 too frequent requeening. To avoid 

 having the cells buried in comb, and 

 comb honey at that, I provided a new 

 frame, last season, in which the cell 

 bars are near the bottom, and where 

 the top part is screened. If this va- 

 cant space wasn't screened, comb 

 would be built in it, or the sides of 

 adjacent combs bulged in, greatly in- 

 terfering with its manipulation. 



The nearer the bottom they are, 

 the less honey bees put there. This 

 worked fine in height of honeyflow, 

 when used on strong queen-right 

 colonies in second super, and I got a 

 nice lot of queens from colonies that 

 stored between 1.50 and 200 pounds 

 of honey. 



In practice I find some things dif- 

 ferent from what noted authors 

 claim. For instance: I have never 

 found it necessary to feed cell-build- 

 ing colonies, but I don't attempt such 

 work in a dearth of nectar. Early in 

 the season, before supers are on, I 



am obliged to dequeen a colony if I 

 want grafted cells built out, but not 

 afterwards, when the honey season is 

 good. When selecting strong colo- 

 nies for cell building, I take the gen- 

 tle ones, those that need no smoke for 

 opening the hive; for I look at them 

 quite often. My plan is to restrict 

 swarming, but I like to make use of 

 swarming queen-cells when they oc- 

 cur on valuable and gentle stocks. 

 From this means I have propagated 

 some of my best colonies. 



You aver that a queen doesn't lay 

 in a completed queen-cell (one made 

 at beginning for that purpose). I 

 think she does. Here is my proof: 

 Take a strong colony having several 

 incipient queen-cells built, but no 

 brood in them. If you dequeen this 

 stock, no cells will be completed on 

 these foundations, but rather over 

 worker cells. If you let this colony 

 go ahead with its swarming program, 

 you will find, at first, eggs in these 

 previously built queen-cells, and later 

 on, the fully developed peanut- 

 shaped swarming cells, so different 

 from those emergency cells. 



Canada. 



THE PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING 

 APPLIED TO BEES 

 By Geo. A. Coleman 



It is now a commonly accepted and 

 well understood fact that the physical 

 b; sis of all li^nng things is the ce:l. a 

 .'^mall portion of living matt3r usually 

 enclosed in i thin membrane and con- 

 taining a v.ell defined center called 

 the nuclHUij. The great majority >f 

 cells are coi.cemed only in the buili!- 

 ing up and maintainance of body 

 structures (tissues, organs^ blood, 

 etc.), but a few, called the germ c^^lls, 

 are set apart for the sp 'Oial function 

 of reproduction. Thesd. are devel- 

 oped in the generative organs as eggs 

 in the ovaries of the fem.ile and as 

 sperm in the testes of the mal?. 

 The Beginning of a New Individual 



The germ cells contain living ma- 

 terial known as germ-plasm, vvnich is 

 composed of elements a part of which 

 pass unchanged from generation to 

 generation and carry the characteris- 

 tics of the individual and of the race 

 down the line of descent. As a result 

 of mating there is a mingling of the 

 germ plasm of two individuals carry- 

 ing inherited characters of both. The 

 queen mates but once, when she re- 

 ceives enough sperm from the drone 

 to fertilize her eggs throughout her 

 period of active production. 



The characteristics of the new in- 

 dividual, resulting from the union of 

 male and female germ cells is found 

 to be determined by certain bodies in 

 the nuclei of the cells known in sci- 

 entific parlance as chromosomes (col- 

 ored bodies) , which are brought over 

 in equal numbers from each parent 

 with the exception of an odd body 

 known as the X chromosome, which 

 determines the sex of the new individ- 

 ual. All the chromosomes but the 

 latter are in pairs, and their number 

 varies with the kind of animal or 

 plant, varying in the domestic ani- 

 mals from 40 to 48. The cells of the 



