1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



797 



Agriculture, Washington, D. C, gave special 

 emphasis to the fact that all sugars are a real 

 food, going to make, under certain conditions, 

 bone, fat, and muscle ; but he added that, 

 honey being specially prepared by the bees, it 

 was more fit for human consumption than any 

 other sweet known. This statement is backed 

 by Prof. A. J. Cook, now of Pomona College, 

 Cal. ; also by Dr. J. H. Kellogg, of Battle 

 Creek, Mich. Besides these there are numer- 

 ous other authorities that can be produced to 

 prove the same statement. Dr. Kellogg, it 

 will be remembered, was once very much op- 

 posed to the use of honey as a food ; but in 

 later years his observations have led him to 

 change his mind, and now he very frankly 

 admits it, and positively says that honey is 

 the most easily assimilated of any of the 

 sweets on the market. Mr. Leister, while a 

 college graduate, and possibly able to look 

 into this subject from a scientific standpoint, 

 has taken up the matter in a practical way, 

 that is, from the position of one who has made 

 a large use of honey in his regular dietary, and 

 his statement is abundantly verified by the 

 experience of E. E. Hasty, of Richards, 0.; by 

 the Rev. E. T. Abbott, of St. Joseph, Mo.; by 

 Dr. A. B. Mason — yes, by scores and 

 scores of others who might be 

 named if we needed proof. While 

 bee keepers generally believe all 

 this, they do not, as they might, 

 emphasize these matters to the gro- 

 cery trade and to the consumers. 

 Just let those who are dyspeptic or 

 who for any reason have weak pow- 

 ers of assimilation, and yet who are 

 very fond of sweets, thoroughly un- 

 derstand that well-ripened houey is 

 probably something they can eat with impuni- 

 ty, and we shall not only find an increased 

 consumption of honey, but a stronger and 

 healthier class of people. — Ed.] 



DOOLITTLE CELL-BUILDING. 



The Advantage of Starting Doolittle Cell-cups in 

 Queenless Colonies, and Having the Same Com- 

 pleted Finally in the Upper Story of Col- 

 onies with Good Queens. 



BY W. H. PRIDGEN. 



I have noticed the remarks in Gleanings 

 about your present success in having cells 

 built ; and to bring about a little rivalry be- 

 tween your queen-breeder and myself, unless 

 I am already beaten, I send you some sample 

 cells from which the queens have emerged. 

 To form a correct idea, they should, of course, 

 be compared with some of his in like condi- 

 tion. One set is not larger than the average ; 

 but the beauty of it is, all I send were accept- 

 ed by the same bees at the same time. The 

 complete batch was built by black bees over a 

 young queen, while the others were built over 

 an old three banded queen mated with a gold- 

 en drone. The cups for each batch were all 

 dipped at once instead of one at a time. The 

 comb from which the larvae were transferred 

 was given to bees without unsealed brood 



June 21, at which time not more than half a 

 dozen larvae with food around them could be 

 seen. The next day a good-sized patch of lar- 

 vae was floating in the milk, so that, in shav- 

 ing the comb down, many larvae were shaven 

 out. In fact, there seemed to be about half a 

 drop in each cell, while the larvae could rarely 

 be seen, and the oldest could not be transfer- 

 red by my method. 



About 10 a. m., June 22, I prepared the bees 

 to accept the cups by shaking them from an 

 upper story (over an excluder) off from combs 

 containing brood in all stages, into a hive con- 

 taining combs of pollen and unsealed honey, 

 and placed a screen at the entrance, so that no 

 bees could escape. About 3 p. m., the same 

 day, the prepared cups were given, and the 

 bees kept screened in until the next morning, 

 at which time the bees were returned to the 

 hive whence they came, one batch of cells 

 given to them to complete, and the other giv- 

 en to another colony. 



June 29 the cells were but in nurseries as 

 shown in last August Review, and the opera- 

 tions repeated in starting more. With the ex- 

 ception that the larvae were not fed by queen- 

 less bees before transferring, and while all the 



cups given (36) were accepted, the cells this 

 time are not quite so large. The larvae in the 

 first case were certainly not one day old ; and 

 by the time they were 3 days old the cells were 

 about as long as the queens left them when 

 they cut out. I can not get fine cells or 

 eiueens when larvae much over one day old are 

 used, because they are old enough to seal be- 

 fore the bees have time to feed them sufficient- 

 ly to get them far from the top, and the cell is 

 sealed with the larva about a bee's length 

 from the tip. 



I know I have to differ with Dr. Miller in a 

 very modest way; but if he thinks that, be- 

 cause a larva is accepted in a Doolittle cup, it 

 is always fed from the start as a queen should 

 be, he is simply mistaken. I have had them 

 accepted, and perfect workers reared. Nei- 

 ther can one get as good queens from three day- 

 old larvae. My best emerge in 11 ^4 to 12 days. 

 Shaking the bees from the combs has much to 

 do with preparing them to accept cups, and 

 then not wait too long before they are given. 

 I want to give my cups to bees just " crying " 

 for a queen for about 24 hours, and then have 

 them completed in a hive containing a laying 

 queen. The anxiety for a queen wears off 

 with queenless bees before the cells are com- 

 pleted ; but those just made queenless are 

 much better at giving them the send-off and 

 shaping-up of the cells. For the first day, 

 queenless bees will feed the larvae as much, 



