492 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



ways sell right from the case, and refill 

 again when I return to the wagon. Former- 

 ly I used a small valise in which I carried 

 one can and a glassed section as samples. 

 This answered quite well until it appeared 

 to me that a more attractive and inviting 

 display of my goods would be a great ad- 

 vantage. In this I was not mistaken. My 

 little sample case just filled the bill. It is 

 simply a partitioned-off crate, glassed on 

 both sides, with jointed handle. It holds 

 four sections and three cans; being all fin- 

 ished off in good style, stained and var- 

 nished, like any well-made furniture, it 

 presents, when filled, a neat and tasty ap- 

 pearance. Like the lettering on the box, it 

 speaks for itself wherever I expose it to 

 view, and I am almost always sure of a 

 sale if I can induce the members of a house- 

 hold to notice it at all. 



In conclusion let me say once more — it 

 can not be repeated too often — that in. sell- 

 ing honey it is the neat appearance that 

 has a great bearing on being successful as 

 a salesman. Honey being naturally a mussy 

 article to handle we have to take extra 

 pains to present it in clean shape. I never 

 load up my wagon without using a damp 

 cloth on all my cans that show the least 

 sign of dust or stickiness, and the same with 

 sections. I examine every one before I 

 start out. If any have leaked and are 

 daubed up, or dust has gathered on them, 

 the damp cloth is called into requisition. 



La Salle, N. Y. 



MODERN QUEEN-REARING. 



Swabbing a New Cup wiih Royal Jelly is all (hat 

 is Necessary to Have Them Acctpted; Cell- 

 protectors Unnecessary with Wooden Cups; 

 the Advantage of Flange Shells: Queens 

 Laying in Compressed Cups; only 200 

 Bees Needed to Mate a Queen. 



BY F. L. PRATT. 



It was at the suggestion of Mr. Alley, I 

 believe, that this controversy on queen- rear- 

 ing methods has started. It's interesting, 

 Mr. Editor, and I hope you will keep it up 

 until all on the subject is out. 



I have carefully read what your Mr. 

 Phillips has written, and find that your 

 practices at Medina pretty closely resemble 

 those at Swarthmore. There are a few 

 points, however, I take the liberty to criti- 

 cise as being either wasteful, and in some 

 cases extravagant or unnecessary. 



In the use of royal jelly, for instance, up- 

 on which to deposit the larva; when lifted 

 from the comb — such a practice is fassy, 

 and entirely unnecessary, therefore waste- 

 ful — wasteful in time, patience, and quali- 

 ty of queens. Larva; at an age fit for trans- 

 ferring have no mouth for eight hours, and 

 have no use for food if it is given them. 

 Even if they had use for it, is stale food 

 wholesome? The bees say no, and at once 

 proceed to remove the obnoxious stuff. 

 There is but one good purpose to which 



second-hand royal jelly can be put, and 

 that is, to swab into new cups to give them 

 a prime odor. Then if you will give the cu ps 

 to any bees they will clean them out fit for 

 the reception of royal larvse, and you may 

 rest assured that cups thus treated will be 

 accept! d every time without fail. 



Mr. Phillips recommends the cell-piotect- 

 or when ripe cells are given to queen-mat- 

 ing nuclei — an entirely unnecessary prac- 

 tice when wooden compressed cups are used. 

 Bees are apt to destroy cut or broken cells 

 because of the ruptures in the wax about 

 the base, made by breaking or cutting the 

 cells from a comb or bar. They seem to at- 

 tempt to mend these ruptures, and in doing 

 so, accidentally or otherwise, cut into the 

 delicate fillet of the cell, after which the 

 hole is soon enlarged and the larva is at 

 last cast out. Not so with cells built upon 

 wooden cups, for the simple reason that no 

 ruptures are made in removing them; they 

 remain natural — cell, base, and all — just 

 as the bees built them — no mending is need- 

 ed, therefore no destruction occurs. Cells 

 built upon Swartlunore wooderi cups tnay be 

 placed in the midst of any colorty as soon as 

 the old queen is removed Jro^n the hive; and 

 if they do not hatch before tivelve hours the 

 virgins will be alloived to live and mate. 

 Cell-protec(ors, for protecting cells, are out 

 of place in modern queen-rearing, for there 

 is no real use for them. 



Another wasteful practice is the destroy- 

 ing of good compressed cups each time vir- 

 gins have hatched from them. Wh}' not 

 have a cell- cleaning board on top of some 

 hive, in a convenient location, into which 

 board all cells may be quickly thrust at any 

 time? The bees will then clear the cups 

 out ready fjr another grafting, and still 

 another and another. A good stock of re- 

 constructed queen- cells is one of the most 

 valuable requisites to a queen- rearing yard. 

 We have cups that have been in use for more 

 than three years — the oftener they are used 

 the better they seem to work, so say a good 

 many who are usirg wooden pressed cups. 



The most wasteful practice of all in cell- 

 handling, it seems to me, is the leaving-off 

 of the flanges on the wooden cups. By 

 the way you work them, attached to the 

 under side of a bar, in the middle of a 

 frame, you are obliged to disturb your colo- 

 ny each time an examination is made, which 

 not only sets the bees and the cells back, 

 but entails a lot of unnecessary labor in 

 lifting combs, smoking, in prying, etc. 

 The idea of the wooden cup is to save time 

 and labor. When you leave off the flange 

 and substitute a tack you destroy half the 

 labor-saving quality of the cup. You can 

 not get at your cells attached to the under 

 side of a bar, in the middle of a brood-frame, 

 without lifting the comb. Cells do just as 

 well, and in many cases better, on a line 

 with the top bars in the midst of the brood- 

 chamber. This being so, why not have 

 your top-bar removable to save drawing the 

 frame? Then all you will have to do to 

 cage a lot of cells behind perforated zinc is 



