756 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15. 



he who consults his purse will not hesitate as 

 to which style to select. 



But narrowing the top and bottom bars of 

 plain sections, as you suggest, would be a 

 step backward. While it might make the sec- 

 tions look a little plumper, as you say, it 

 would be almost impossible to handle them, 

 for sections are ordinarily handled by the top 

 part ; and if that is so narrow as to be even 

 with the face of the honey, the thumb and 

 finger would be almost sure to gouge into it 

 in handling. At one time we thought it nec- 

 essary to use veneer strips to separate plain 

 sections in the shipping-cases ; but we now 

 find that is not necessary.— Ed.] 



NORTON'S IMPROVED INTRODUCING-CAGE. 



How to Construct, etc. 



BY A. NORTON. 



Friend Root:— Referring to an article on 

 introducing queens, by W. Z. Hutchinson, in 

 American Bee Journal, with illustration of 

 cage for confining a queen against the comb, 

 and his references to similar matter in Glean- 

 ings, whence he borrowed the illustration, I 

 wish to send you an illustration of the way I 

 prefer to make these cages. Mr. Hutchinson 

 lets the queen in by raising the cage slightly 

 and putting the shipping-cage under it, and 



letting the queen into it, after which he with- 

 draws the shipping-cage and presses the other 

 down into the comb. I once ruined a queen 

 in that way because she was too lively, and 

 she crawled under the sharp wires and was 

 pierced by them. Again, I have lost queens 

 by the sudden removal of the cage when I 

 thought accepting time had come, the queen 

 being scared, and the bees irritated by the jar 

 of taking the cage out of the comb. I did 

 not like to mutilate the combs by cutting an 

 exit. I have been very successful with the 

 modification I send you. 



I make a little hole in the cage at the out- 

 set. In the diagram sent you I put two 

 forms in the same illustration, to save space, 

 only one being needed. I pierce a hole with 

 a leadpencil, or any similar kind of punch, as 

 at d. I then make a little gate of wire cloth, 

 b, which is unraveled at the bottom, clinched 

 at the sides by bending back the wires and at 

 top the same, saving two or three of the pro- 

 jecting wires, which I bend partly down 

 forming hooks. The bottom presses into the 

 comb, and the hooks at the top catch into the 

 wire cage so as to hold the gate secure. A c 



shows a square place cut from the cage in- 

 stead of the hole b. 



With the cage well set into the comb, and 

 no bees inside, I hold the shipping-cage down 

 with the little entrance open, the cork being 

 removed, so that a nice passageway into the 

 introducing-cage exists, and with a slight 

 puffing of smoke I drive the queen alone, or 

 queen and bees, into the latter. I then put 

 on the gate over the hole, and all is secure, 

 with no risk of injury to the queen. When I 

 am ready I can remove the gate (that is to 

 say, when the bees will accept the queen), 

 and replace the frame, leaving the queen to 

 get out quietly. I like the hole and gate d, a, 

 better than the others, a, r, which I have 

 tried as well. 



If desired, one can insert a tinfoil or paper 

 roll of queen-candy at d for the bees to eat 

 their way into the cage in a given time, the 

 roll being outside the cage. However, I have 

 been very successful without this. I have 

 had uniform success with this form of the 

 cage, though I do not introduce queens by 

 any one method entirely. I have recently 

 had them safely accepted within 12 to 18 

 hours after putting them in from the ship- 

 ping-cage in three instances, although no 

 honey was coming in. It is well to have the 

 abdicating queen caged in the same cage and 

 place a while first. But it is not safe, gener- 

 ally, to try to do the work so soon. If one 

 prefers the square cut as at c, the gate may be 

 either slipped in through slits, as illustrated, 

 or go on over with hooks, as at b, d. These 

 cages may be laid away for future occasions. 



Monterey, Cal., Aug. 1. 



SMALL VS. LARGE HIVES FOR COMB HONEY. 



BY D. N. RITCHEY 



As I take up the subject of small hives I 

 wish to correct the editor in thinking that I 

 have not tried large hives. I have tried hives 

 holding from 3 to 14 frames, side by side, year 

 after year, and now I will give you a short 

 history of my life in bee adventures and expe- 

 riences, which will give good reasons why I 

 advocate the small hive for comb honey. 



I have loved the bee from my childhood to 

 the present hour, and expect to do so until 

 Mr. Dadant and I meet in that land where the 

 sun never sets, and where the only nectar- 

 gatherers will be — Apis dorsaia, if you please. 



The summer I was twelve years old my fa- 

 ther promised me the next swarm if I would 

 find a hive to put them in. Of course, I 

 agreed to do that. My father and grand- 

 father were bee-keepers. My grandfather 

 would take me on his knee, and say to father, 

 " This boy will make a bee-man some day." I 

 went to a carpenter and told him what I want- 

 ed. He said he would make me a hive, and 

 asked what kind I wanted. I told him I want- 

 ed a hive that did not take so much honey to 

 fill the lower part, so the bees could put hon- 

 ey in the boxes above sooner. 



"All right," said the carpenter; "I will 

 make just the kind that will suit you." So- 



