1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



589 



E. B. GLADISH. 



Since our last issue we have been favored 

 with a visit from Mr. E. B. Gladish, the junior 

 member of the Leahy Mfg. Co., Higginsville, 

 Mo. If I am correct, Mr. G. is foreman or 



shop manager of the Leahy Co. He is a mod- 

 est, quiet young man, and yet seems to com- 

 bine the quaUties necessary to run a shopful 

 of men. He was here only half a day, and 

 then went to Buffalo, N. Y. During the few 

 hours we spent together I found him to be 

 progressive, and alert to the " kinks " of his 

 trade, and not only eager to impart but grasp 

 that which is new. Gi^Eanings wishes him a 

 profitable and enjoyable vacation after his 

 siege of long-hour runs. 



RAISING OUEEN-CELI.S A t,A DOOLITTLE ; THE 



HOME OF THE HONEY-BEES HAS MADE 



A SUCCE.SS OF IT AT LAST. 



Our Mr. Wardell, formerly of New Phila- 

 delphia, Ohio, and who has been with us for 

 several months, has been experimenting with 

 different methods of queen-rearing. Some lit- 

 tle time ago he requested a copy of " Doolittle 

 on Oueen-rearing, " and a few days ago he 

 asked me to come and see what he had ; and, 

 sure enough, he had twelve as pretty queen- 

 cells, secured from Doolittle artificial cups, as 

 one ever saw. They stuck down like great 

 large peanuts from the bottom edge of the 

 comb, and from the standpoint of a queen- 

 rearer they were beauties indeed. I took sev- 

 eral snapshots of these and of similar lots of 

 cells that he had so secured, and hope to pre- 

 sent you a view of them later. His inodics 

 operajidi is as follows : 



He prepares artificial cell-cups exactly as 

 explained in Doolittle's book. These he grafts 

 with larvse from our best breeding-queen, and 

 they are then stuck on the bottom edge of a 

 comb or of a stick running horizontally across 

 the brood-frame from which the comb has 

 been cut. Cups so prepared are then put into 

 a colony having an old queen which the bees 

 are evidently trying to supersede. In such 

 colonies these artificial cell-cups with their 



grafted larvae are accepted at once. After the 

 cells are drawn out and capped over they are 

 removed and put into another hive that he 

 calls his "nursery." This hive contains a 

 queenless colony ; and as it is strong in bees 

 the cells are kept at the proper temperature 

 necessary for the perfect development of the 

 imago queens. On or about the ninth day 

 the cells are cut out and slipped into one of 

 Noah D. West's queen-cell protectors. This 

 protector cage is then slipped into one of the 

 hatching-cages, at the bottom of which are a 

 few drops of honey to feed the young queen 

 when she hatches. If she hatches the next 

 day, or two or three davs later, it does not 

 make much difference. She is confined in the 

 long spiral cage below, and can be taken out 

 and introduced whenever he is ready for her. 



Mr. Wardell finds that he obtains the best 

 results by giving these artificial cell-cups to 

 colonies that are about to supersede their 

 queens. Such colonies do not become restive 

 but go right on building out and compleung 

 batch after batch of cell-cups. From one col- 

 ony in particular he has taken three batches, 

 and is now giving them the fourth. As they 

 already have a mother in the hive they do not 

 become discouraged, but go right on making 

 the building of cells their specialty. 



One great feature of the Doolittle system is 

 that it enables one to rear all or nearly all 

 the queens from one selected mother. In this 

 case it happens to be the Alley queen, whose 

 queen-daughters are beautiful as well as her 

 bees. They are hardy, prolific, and hold their 

 own with any other colony for honey. 



Mr. Wardell is very enthusiastic over the 

 Doolittle system, "because," said he, "my 

 queens are all from one stock, and the very 

 best I have." 



EXPERIMENTS WITH THE NATURAI, - BASE 

 DRAWN FOUNDATION. 



It has been unfavorable to test the new 

 product. But judging from one colony we 

 have been feeding, it would appear that drawn 

 foundation with walls deeper than }i inch will 

 not give us as friable and delicate a comb as 

 that which is )i inch deep or less ; that is to 

 say, when the walls are deeper than y^ inch, 

 the bees do not thin them down to walls of 

 natural thickness. So far, tests go to show 

 that drawn foundation having walls y^ inch 

 deep, and with natural bases, is taken by the 



