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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1. 



make hives, sections, etc., by power machin- 

 ery. No particular hive is now described in 

 " Hive-making," and the matter is simmered 

 down to the processes of cutting up stuff on 

 foot-power and light-power machinery. As 

 to dimensions, the reader is advised to send 

 to some manufacturer for a sample standard 

 hive in flat, and from the parts of this secure 

 his measurements. " Hives," an entirely new 

 subject, contains a description of all the best 

 ones. Among them may be seen the old-style 

 Langstroth, the Simplicity, the Dovetailed 

 Langstroth in its various forms ; the Danzen- 

 baker, the Heddon, the Dadant, and, under 

 this head, large and small hives. This is fol- 

 lowed by a discussion on double-walled or 

 winter hives. Various principles are illus- 

 trated, all the way from the loose to the closed- 

 end frame. This is a rather new departure in 

 the A B C of Bee Culture ; but as I went over 

 the field I felt that principles should be dis- 

 cussed, showing some of the best samples of 

 those principles, leaving the reader of the 

 book to make his own selection. The subject 

 of "Hives" is followed by three more new 

 subjects, " Honey as a Food," " Honey Cook- 

 ing-recipes," and "Honey-peddling." 



PRODUCING QUEEN-CELLS BY THE DOZEN A 



LA DOOLITTLE IN THE LOWER STORY, 



ALONGSIDE OF A NORMAL LAYING 



QUEEN ; HOW IT IS DONE. 



Heretofore Doolittle cells were produced 

 either in the upper story or in the lower one 

 where the bees were about to supersede the 

 queen ; but our Mr. Wardell can now get the 

 bees to accept and build out Doolittle cell-cups 

 in the single story of any colony having a 

 normal queen. There may be nothing new 

 about it ; but so far I have not yet known of 

 the practice being carried on in the manner 

 stated, in the lower story, or brood-nest. Our 

 apiarist makes use of the same general princi- 

 ple as when cells are produced in the upper 

 story separated from the lower one by a queen- 

 excluding honey-board. 



Early this spring many of our colonies were 

 weak, owing to the severe winter, and it was 

 not practicable to rear queen-cells in the upper 

 story. Accordingly, Mr. Wardell had queen- 

 excluding division-boards constructed so that 

 he could divide off any brood-nest in the yard 

 into three divisions. The two outer divisions 

 he leaves to the queen, and the middle one he 

 devotes to the raising of cells, while the bees, 

 of course, have access to all three parts. He 

 prefers to have the central space (shut off on 

 either side with perforated zinc) wide enough 

 to take in three frames. In this case the mid- 

 dle frame is the one that has the cell-cups. 

 The frame on each side of this should have 

 young larvse, as he thinks they draw the 

 nurse bees. When he opens the hive to take 

 away ripe cells and put in their place cell- 

 cups, he puts the queen now on one side and 

 then on the other side of the central portion 

 devoted to the raising of cells. This way the 

 whole hive is kept in a normal condition. At 

 no time is the colony queenless, and yet it is 

 raising cells by the dozen. 



He prepares cell-cups in the usual manner, 

 and inserts the royal food and a young larva 

 in each cell. Twelve of these cell cups are 

 fastened to the bottom edge of a comb, or to 

 what I believe he now prefers, a horizontal 

 stick mounted in the center of the frame. 

 This frame is then put into that portion of the 

 brood-nest from which the queen is excluded. 

 The hive is then closed up, and left for sever- 

 al days. Strange as it may seem, even though 

 a colony is not particularly strong, having 

 only, perhaps, four or five frames, and even 

 though the weather is so cool at night that 

 there is danger of frost, those cell-cups will be 

 drawn out and capped over. 



But there is one very important requisite ; 

 viz., stimulating feeding, or the bees will do 

 nothing, and right here is where many have 

 failed. It does not matter whether cells are 

 reared in the upper story or in the lower one, 

 there must be stimulative feeding going on, 

 providing honey is not coming in. When 

 such feeding is intelligently practiced, we are 

 successful in producing cells, even though the 

 weather has been too cool for the bees to fly ; 

 but of course the bees have to be warmly 

 packed in chaff. The upper row of cells 

 shown in the illustration on page 498 was pro- 

 duced in a seven-frame colony during the 

 month of April when many of the days were 

 so cool that the bees could not fly. One por- 

 tion of this nucleus contained a laying queen 

 that was performing her regular functions ; 

 and the other portion, separated by a perforat- 

 ed zinc-board, contained a frame of cells. 



The lower row of cells was built during warm 

 weather, in a single brood-nest — the other con- 

 ditions, such as stimulative feeding, etc., being 

 the same. 



Cells that are built on a stick show off better, 

 doubtless, for the reason that there is less wax 

 to use ; under these conditions the bees use no 

 more material than is absolutely required to 

 make the necessary inclosure of their royal 

 mothers to be. When cell-cups are fastened 

 on the bottom edge of a comb, bees have a 

 tendency to work in a good deal more wax, as 

 will be seen by the upper illustration. 



There are some colonies that, instead of 

 building round, shapely, blunt cells, like those 

 shown in the lower row on page 498, build 

 pointed ones ; but we have never been able to 

 discover that the queens from such cells were 

 not as good as those that look more shapely to 

 the eye, the kind that remind one strongly of 

 the "big double - jointed California pea- 

 nuts." 



The question has often been asked, "How 

 much royal jelly is required for each cell?" 

 Doolittle says, enough to make up the equiva- 

 lent bulk of a double-B shot. Mr. Wardell 

 says he may use more or he may use less ; but 

 if any thing he would make the supply as lib- 

 eral as possible. One ordinary natural queen- 

 cell of two or three days' growth, we will say, 

 should contain enough royal jelly for half a 

 dozen cells, and sometimes enough for a whole 

 dozen. The royal jelly fed should be of about 

 the right age. It would not do to have it too 

 thick and stiff — but about the age, when the 

 cell is about three days old. 



