1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



303 



the other half use sections filled with founda- 

 tion the season before. Place these supers on 

 the hive at a time when the flow of honey is 

 only moderate. Watch them closely as the 

 bees begin work on them. If they do not 

 show a decided preference for the fresh foun- 

 dation, }our experience will be entirely differ- 

 ent from mine. I have never known it to 

 fail, though when honey is coming in very 

 freely, so that the bees go to work in the 

 supers in a rush, the difference is not so no- 

 ticeable. 



Unless the foundation has been varnished 

 with propolis, which sometimes ruins it en- 

 tirely, the bees will always use it if honey is 

 coming in freely ; but during a moderate flow 

 they sometimes show a very marked reluctance 

 to using it 



With a short honey-flow a little delay in 

 getting started may mean a great difference 

 in results ; so I consider it very doubtful 

 economy to use foundation that has been long 

 exposed to the air. 



DEEP CELLS. 



Having combs built so thick that the queen 

 will not lay in them, as referred to on pages 

 132 and 16-5, looks plausible ; but my experi- 

 ence has shown that, while it is somewhat of 

 a deterrent, it can not be relied on as a com- 

 plete preventive. In my extracting-supe-s I 

 use seven combs in the space occupied by 

 eight brood- combs. Most of these combs 

 were made by transferring, so that it often 

 happens that a part of the cells in a comb are 

 fully % of an inch deep. At any time when 

 the bees are desirous of extending the brood- 

 nest they will use such combs without any 

 hesitation, cutting down the thick combs to a 

 proper depth of cell. In fact, it has some- 

 times seemed to me that the bees preferred to 

 use these extracting-combs for brood rather 

 than the regular brood-combs. When a queen 

 is allowed free range through several sets of 

 combs tiered above one another she is apt to 

 desert the lower range of combs entirely, and 

 lay in the second and third story, even when 

 the combs in these upper stories require con- 

 siderable alteration to fit them for brood - 

 rearing. 



SOAKING COMBS 

 in a solution of carbolic acid in order to disin- 

 fect them after foul brood, was once tried by 

 me with a considerable number of combs. I 

 decided that it was both risky and unprofitable. 

 It is a very difficult matter to get all the cells 

 of a comb filled with water. If a single in- 

 fected cell resists the entrance of the water, 

 your work is all for nothing. After soaking 

 them in the carbolic-acid solution they must 

 be soaked in plenty of clear water to remove 

 the smell. They must then be dried. After 

 all this soaking and rinsing, the bees did not 

 seem to like to use them, so I concluded that 

 the best way to disinfect such combs was to 

 melt them into wax. 



SEELING HONEY BY THE SECTION 



instead of by weight has been my usual meth- 

 od for several years. Most of the grocers 

 accept this method very cheerfully, and, after 

 experience with the plan, prefer it. Those 



who do not, generally like to buy by weight 

 and sell by piece, because they are thereby 

 enabled to squeeze out an extra profit. I use 

 sections seven to the foot, with separators, of 

 course, and they run very uniform in weight. 

 Ottawa, 111., Mar. 23. 



THE D00LITTLE METHOD. 



Some Good Hints ; the Superiority of the Doolittle- 

 reared Queens. 



BY J. J. COSBY. 



After reading Mr. Doolittle's " Method of 

 Queen -rearing in a Nutshell," as given in the 

 Jan. 15th issue of Gleanings, I thought that 

 perhaps some testimonials from one of his fol- 

 lowers might prove to be beneficial to some of 

 the many beginners. 



I purchased his book about seven years ago, 

 and have been very successful in rearing 

 queens of the hightst quality. Since, Mr. 

 Doohttle says, on page 47, "Then there is a 

 bare possibility that the deeper Gallup frame 

 has something to do with it, but I think not." 



Well, I wish to clear of doubt the mind of 

 the reader by saying his " think not " is cor- 

 rect. I use the Hoffman frame, with good re- 

 sults. I prepare my hive as he directs in 

 Gleanings, except that I use one of my very 

 best queens, especially as to markings of prog- 

 eny, honey-gathering, prolificness, gentleness, 

 etc. In short, this queen must be second to 

 none in the yard, so far as I can judge. 



I want this queen to be the mother of my 

 drones ; and while I am feeding to secure 

 good queens I am also feeding the same colo- 

 ny to secure an abundance of the very best and 

 finest drones. Oh such beauties ! 



Why do we bee keepers admire the beauties 

 of the queen so much, and neglect the drone? 

 But to return to the subject. 



About April 5th to the 10th I put one ortwo 

 combs of honey into this hive that was drone 

 comb (after uncapping the cells), and about 

 M*y 1st to 10th I put in one comb of sealed 

 brood from hybrid colonies every two or three 

 days until all ten-frames are full of brcod (at 

 this time the drone comb should be pretty 

 well filled with drone brood, larvse, and e^gs). 



Now, do not think that, because you have 

 brood in all the frames, you are ready for the 

 upper story. You should wait until enough 

 bees batch out to fill the brood-chamber cram- 

 med full ; then you are ready to raise the two 

 frames of larvae and eggs, and put in their 

 place two frames of sealed brood from your 

 hybrids, and proceed as Mr. Doolittle has in- 

 structed, and I do not see how ycu can fail. 

 It is not absolutely necessary to use hybrids to 

 do the cell -building; you only get a greater 

 per cent of the cell-cups accepted and com- 

 pleted by so doing. 



Why are these queens better than queens 

 reared from natural swarming? Because good 

 queens are, as a ride, raised only in an abun- 

 dance of bee-heat ; and queens raised in this 

 hotbed, as it were, of bee-heat, and kept there 

 until just read}' to hatch out, are bound to be 



