1900 



GIvEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



695 



low. He says the upper-story plan is all right 

 during the swarming time, but it is impracti- 

 cable (although he can use them) after the 

 honey-flow. 



Mr. Wardell has recently been using work- 

 er-cells in place of drone comb, which some- 

 times he does not have, and with them he se- 

 cures uniformly good results. Yet, all things 

 considered, he prefers the drone comb when 

 he can get it. 



He wishes it to be distinctly understood 

 that he does not condemn the Pridgen method, 

 which he says is all right, but that he can 

 graft a certain number of drone-cells, or Doo- 

 little cups, with larvee and royal food, in less 

 time than he can prepare a given number of 

 cells a la Pridgen by transferring cocoons ; 

 and he also believes that those cells that con- 

 tain royal food will be more likely to be ac- 

 cepted. While the royal jelly is not absolute- 

 ly necessary, yet from many experiments he 

 is convinced that it furnishes a larger per cent 

 of accepted cells. He has now charge of our 

 500 colonies and nuclei, and almost alone he 

 keeps the whole number at work. His ex- 

 perience with us for the last two years must, 

 therefore, be somewhat extended. 



HOW TO GET DRONES OUT OF SEASON. 



Some little time ago he complained that he 

 was not able to get sufficient drones for fertil- 

 izing our queens ; that he might give a queen- 

 less colony frames of drone comb, and feed 

 them ever so carefully, yet the queens would 

 not lay in drone comb ; but he partially solv- 

 ed the problem in this way : He gives a colo- 

 ny a frame containing two-thirds worker comb 

 and about one-third drone near the bottom 

 edges. The queen will start laying in worker- 

 cells, and as her circle enlarges she will grad- 

 ually work over into the drone-cells. In this 

 way he thinks he "steals a march" on the 

 queens and bees, for he has been able to se- 

 cure drones from choice stock, and at a sea- 

 son of the year when it is very difficult to get 

 a good supply of choice drones. 



Soon after the Philadelphia convention last 

 year I asked Mr. Doolittle how he managed 

 this difficult problem. "I don't manage it 

 very successfully," said he. "At a certain 

 period in the summer there is a time when 

 bees will almost refuse to rear drones." If so 

 good an authority as Doolittle has been floor- 

 ed, perhaps this kink will be worth much to 

 many of our queen-breeders. 



263 CELLS FROM ONE COLONY. 



A moment ago I spoke of the fact that Mr. 

 Wardell uses, when he can, colonies that are 

 about to supersede their queens. He always 

 keeps such colonies, as he considers them a 

 real acquisition. One such colony has reared 

 for him 26.3 cells. The bees have been trying 

 to supersede their queen all this time ; but be- 

 fore they can possibly get a young mother he 

 takes away their cells and makes them go all 

 over their work again. This colony has actu- 

 ally reared batches of cells, batch after batch, 

 and yet they go on faithfully, building cells 

 without a murmur, in the hope that, in the 

 sweet by and by, they will be able to rear a 

 young queen that will relieve the reigning 



mother. They have continued this till they 

 have reached the total number of 263 cells, 

 and how much longer they will keep this up 

 remains to be seen. He has other supersedure 

 colonies that he is working in the same way, 

 but none of them have approached anywhere 

 near the record of this one. Possibly the bees 

 have learned that, so long as they rear cells, 

 they are liberally fed. If so, they are worthy 

 of their hire. 



OUR 

 HOMES, 



BY A.I. ROOT. 



Dear friends, I have a particular reason for 

 not putting a text at the head of my talk to- 

 day. The reason is, I want each and every 

 one of you to put the text that belongs there 

 when you come to recognize it from your own 

 hearts ; that is, I expect you to recognize and 

 see the text long before I get to it. The story 

 was told me during that week of camp life 

 away out in the wilderness. During our rest- 

 ing-spells and at mealtimes we were in the 

 habit of having long talks. There was no 

 business on hand to hinder — in fact, there was 

 nothing to prevent. We did not even have to 

 get away from the table to let the women-folks 

 clear up things. Well, during one of these 

 talks Mr. Ed. Grainger said there was a re- 

 markable man in Toronto whom I would like 

 to meet before I went home. Perhaps I shall 

 not get the story just right ; but I think I can 

 get it near enough to answer every purpose. 



The man he was speaking of is named Gard- 

 ner. I believe he was not originally a garden- 

 er by profession, but he dropped into it by a 

 combination of events. He formerly lived in 

 Philadelphia, and had a position that com- 

 manded a good salary. His wife's people, if 

 I am correct, lived in Toronto, and in the 

 course of time it became quite necessary that 

 he and she should move to Toronto on account 

 of his wife's relatives, or something of that 

 sort. He accordingly gave up his good place 

 and looked around Toronto for quite a spell 

 for something to do. Every opening seemed 

 to be supplied. But our friend Gardner knew 

 he could in time work into something where 

 he would get good pay. And now I want you 

 to notice a point right here that does not be- 

 long particularly to our talk or sermon. It 

 comes in indirectly. 



After Mr. Gardner had satisfied himself 

 there was really no opening for him at any 

 thing like his former pay he decided to take 

 up with the first position that offered, no mat- 

 ter how humble, and trust to his own genius 

 and industry to enable him to let the world 

 see what he was good for. He got a position 

 as janitor at one of the churches, and rented 

 a cottage adjoining said church. Now, there 

 was a nice square piece of ground belonging 

 to the cottage, that ran close up to the church, 

 separated by only a light fence. As his duties 

 as janitor did not occupy all his time he set to- 



