720 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15. 



a cup. But I did not follow the toothpick 

 transferring long after the Jennie Atchley Co. 

 gave to the public the plan of making cups on 

 pointed pegs, and transferring to them the co- 

 coons, larval food, and all, with tweezers. 



Like all new things, I had to try it, but must 

 admit that I was not very successful in getting 

 the cocoons to fit snugly, but imagined I 

 should finally succeed if any one could, as I 

 liked the idea of using very young larvae, which 

 can not be transferred otherwise, and did not 

 like tearing down nice cells to get jelly. In 

 whittling down a stick to make the cups on, 

 and fitting it to a piece of old comb, it took up 

 a cocoon, and I do not think I finished it be- 

 fore making one of the little sticks with the 

 end hollowed out that I have since so success- 

 fully used. I am confident I can graft four 

 batches with it while I would be preparing 



W. H. PRIDGEN. 



the cups with jelly and grafting one without 

 it. Not long ago I tried transferring larvae 

 only without jelly, which were accepted all 

 right ; but I found it a difficult matter to lift 

 them from a comb without shaving the cells 

 down ; and if I have to resort to that I can do 

 the work in less time, and get more satisfactory 

 results, by transferring the cocoons. 



The next change made was placing the cups 

 in a straight row, and making a nursery to slip 

 over a whole batch without detaching them 

 from the bar, as I did not like to distribute the 

 cells until ready to hatch, which is usually in 

 11^ to 12 days. Being provided with food, 

 and a means of removing the queens as they 

 emerged, I finally got into the habit of distrib- 

 uting the just hatched queens instead of cells, 

 and find many advantages in so doing. Small 

 and defective ones can be discarded. The oc- 

 casional cell that fails to hatch cuts no figure. 



and nuclei will accept them that would often 

 destroy unprotected cells. 



It seems to be a question as to whether the 

 virgins are injured thereby, which may be the 

 case if allowed to remain caged very long, but 

 if removed in from one to eight hours, in my 

 opinion it is not as serious as giving cells to 

 nuclei that can not maintain the normal tem- 

 perature of a full colony. 



The next variation in order was the con- 

 struction, a year ago, of a set of pegs on the 

 order of those illustrated in Gleanings for 

 Ma}' 15, except the pegs had heads, and work- 

 ed loosely in the bar, and the ends of the bar 

 were beveled so as to vary the dip by carrying 

 it endwise (see the Review for Aug., 1899, and 

 May, 1900). With this arrangement, after be- 

 ing finished, the cups were all fastened with 

 melted wax, at a single dip, to the bar, the 

 pegs being turned and withdrawn one at a 

 time. 



A few months ago I constructed a wheel ma- 

 chine having a low of pegs on both sides of a 

 wheel each of which has on a spool rubber that 

 runs against a board made fast in the frame, 

 giving the pegs a whirling motion while the 

 wheel slowly revolves. It is so arranged that 

 the depth of dip is changed automatically by 

 simply turning the machine with a crank. 



After completing it the idea occurred to me 

 that there should be some way of attaching 

 the cups to the bars without melted wax, 

 which is accomplished by boring holes nearly 

 through the bar, and slightly pressing the cups 

 into them. I saw at once that the use of such 

 a bar obviated the necessity of having a flat 

 heavy base to the cups, and that they could be 

 successfully made by the first and more sim- 

 ple plan by having the pegs rigidly fixed, and 

 removing the cups, the dipping and removal 

 to be essentially the same as described on p. 

 402, current Gleanings, though, as in other 

 work, each one will learn to vary the opera- 

 tion to his liking. I have made them varying 

 from 1500 to 2500 to the pound, and considered 

 1500 to the pound quite heavy ; but according 

 to samples recently received from the best 

 authority, 625 is nearer right if one wants to 

 handle the ripe cells roughly. 



I suppose the depth should correspond 

 somewhat with the size of the larvae used ; but 

 after experimenting quite a while with differ- 

 ent depths — varying from y% of an inch to the 

 natural depth and shape of ripe cells — I finally 

 concluded that a fraction less than yi inch 

 was more in conformity to the wishes of 

 the bees, and the size of larvae used, than 

 deeper ; but I must be mistaken, as it does 

 not correspond with the samples from Mr. 

 Doolittle, which are the same as recommended 

 in Gleanings, neither being advocates of the 

 use of old larvae in grafting, I believe ; at 

 least I wruld have no idea of touching the 

 three day mark, I am sure. 



Creek, N. C, May 28. 



[Believing the writer of the above, Mr. 

 Pridgen, to be one of the most up-to-date 

 queen-breeders in the world at the present 

 time, I solicited from him a few facts concern- 

 ing his life, from which I might prepare a bio- 



