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$I°° PERYtAR *\©"flEDINA-0H10 



Vol. XXVII. 



SEPT. 15, 1899. 



No. 18. 



A kink given by W. H. Pridgen in Review 

 is this : The slats to which artificial queen- 

 cells are to be built should be soaked in melt- 

 ed wax until there is no bubbling or frying, 

 before any attempt is made to fasten cups to 

 them. 



That advice, ' ' Keep your colonies strong, ' ' 

 is well worthy of Ouinby, the grand old man 

 to whom Doolittle credits it (page 649); but I 

 think it's older than that. The first edition 

 (as well as the last) of Langstroth says: " The 

 essence of all profitable bee-keeping is con- 

 tained in Oettl's golden rule : Keep your colo- 

 nies strong." 



IF DOOUTTEE CELL- CUPS are to be regularly 

 used, why not have them listed as a regular 

 article of bee-supplies ? [We have been think- 

 ing of having them listed in our catalog. 

 While the making of the cells is a compara- 

 tively easy job, it takes experience to make 

 them just right ; and as we have learned how 

 to make them acceptable to bees it might be 

 well for us to list them as an article of mer- 

 chandise. — Ed. ] 



I've read of a wax-worm smaller than the 

 common kind, and within a week have seen 

 it in two apiaries. It has no gallery among 

 the cappings ; indeed, I don't know that it 

 has any gallery. Its presence is indicated by 

 the wriggling of one or more young bees un- 

 able to leave the cell. Pull out the bee, and 

 at the bottom of the cell is a worm about Yz 

 inch long, slender and very lively. A sort of 

 web is fastened to the young bee. 



Is IT sure that an "extra fancy " grade 

 would have a tendency to " bear " the honey 

 market? There are some who pay an extra 

 price for eggs dated and known to be strictly 

 fresh, and dealers don't complain that it 

 lowers the market price of eggs. [This is the 

 way it struck me at first ; but Niver tried to 



coax me out of that notion. Sometimes I 

 think he is right, and sometimes I think he is 

 all wrong on this particular point. — Ed.] 



The probable reason why royal jelly is 

 used from queen-cells for Doolittle cups rather 

 than the pap from worker-cells, is that it is so 

 much easier to get it in quantity from the 

 queen-cells. Possibly, however, there may 

 have been a thought of difference. [You are 

 right. At first I thought that, if we could use 

 the food of worker larvae, it would be quite an 

 advantage ; but I have since talked with Doo- 

 little, and it now appears that a single cell- 

 cup containing royal jelly will be more con- 

 venient, because it contains food enough for a 

 dozen or more cells, while a worker-cell would 

 contain hardly food enough for one cell. — Ed.] 



I tried H. L,. Jones' method of clipping 

 queens (page 641). The queen seemed deter- 

 mined to twist off her leg. Finally, after 

 spending three times as much time as in the 

 usual way, I got her clipped. Then I tried to 

 liberate her "right on the combs by simply 

 taking the weight off her legs," and she ran 

 up my finger, just as she always does when I 

 don't let her run on a leaf. I tried the Jones 

 plan on several other queens, fastening my 

 thumb on the legs instead of the leg, and head- 

 ing the queen toward the point of my finger, 

 and I feel pretty sure that, for one who hasn't 

 become accustomed to either way, his plan is 

 better than to hold the queen by the thorax. 

 Indeed, I think it likely I shall be a Jones 

 clipper the rest of my life. 



" A CAGED QUEEN may be laid at the en- 

 trance of any populous colony during the 

 working season, and the bees will cluster over 

 the cage and care for the queen just the s'ame 

 as though she were inside the hive." — Review. 

 Two years ago I used a lazier plan than that. 

 I threw a caged old queen at the foot of an 

 apple-tree in the middle of the apiary. A few 

 bees came and clustered on the cage, as they 

 often will. Then I threw another old queen 

 there, and in the course of a few days there 

 were a dozen or so of them. They stayed 

 there for weeks, through rain and shine. An 

 amusing feature was that, although the cluster 



