1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULIURE. 



IZ9 



Agriculture, Washington, and get Bulletin 

 54. entitled " Some Common Birds and Their 

 Relation to Agriculture." 



SOME FINE POINTS IN QUEEN-REARING. 

 Flanged vs. Unflanged Cups. 



BY SWARTHMORE. 



In his footnotes to my remarks on queen- 

 rearing, page 601, June 15, Mr. Phillips 

 brings forward several points in favor of a 

 flanged cup for queen-cells which I should 

 like to accentuate. I have found "by ac- 

 tual experience that the supplying of royal 

 jelly in individual cups for queen-rearing 

 has not only wasted my time but has tried 

 my patience." Any operation that is entire- 

 ly needless always does this. It is much 

 simpler to spend half an hour on som.e cool 

 day swabbing the entire lot of new queen- 

 cups, be there 500 or more, and have the job 

 over with for ever. By the royal-jelly plan, 

 unless one is very careful color may be 

 quickly ruined by chill, especially in early 

 spring. We must bear in mind that the 

 thermometer does not always stand at the 

 desired point, therefore we must have meth- 

 ods that will suit all temperatures if bright 

 queens are to be reared by grafting. 



Mr. Phillips says: "When one has over a 

 hundi'ed cells to graft at one operation, roy- 

 al jelly is absolutely necessary or the larv« 

 will have perished before the finish of the 

 job." Right here is a strong recommenda- 

 tion for flanged cups; for by their use each 

 larva may be immediately placed in the 

 midst of the bees as soon as each cup is 

 grafted, and the bees will at once commence 

 to feed one after the other as received, be 

 there one hundred or one thousand cups to 

 graft. There is no long wait to fill a bar or 

 two before the cups can be given to the bees, 

 as is necessary when the cups are supported 

 by tacks on the under side of a bar or in the 

 middle of a frame. When cups are applied 

 at top, as with the flanged ones, each and 

 every cell will at all times be under perfect 

 control— draw one, two, or all; no bees es- 

 cape, the cluster is not broken, no smoke is 

 needed, no prying necessary — simply draw 

 your cup or cups or barful, interchange at 

 will, give as the occasion demands, leave as 

 you see fit. With flanged shells one may 

 use the bees which started the cups, to much 

 better advantage than when the cups are 

 placed on the under side of a bar; for, when 

 so placed, half the bees will escape and re- 

 turn to the old stand by the time one gets 



the hive open, the frame removed, and the 

 lid replaced -unless the bees are stupefied in 

 seme way, and this is surely objectionable 

 to many. 



Mr. f hillips admits that the bees remove 

 the jelly he places in his cups. Then what, 

 in the name of common sense, is the use of 

 putting it there if the same end can be ac- 

 complished by the usa of a better plan? 



In the matter of protectors Mr. Phillips 

 holds to his rag doll v,ith the statem'^nt that 

 it entails but little extra work. Ah! it is 

 these little unnecessary extras that take 

 one's time just at the flood of orders. It 

 would entail but little extra time to wind a 

 string about each cup; but if of no real ser- 

 vice, what is the use of doing so? No, bees 

 will never- tear down a good cell if built upon 

 a Swarthmore flanged cup. Furthermore, 

 bees will not build upon and enlarge Swarth- 

 more flanged cells during a honey-flow as 

 they do with the ones applied by tacks on 

 the under side of a bar. Here Mr. Phillips 

 has made a very strong statement in favor 

 of top application (accomplished by the 

 flange) of cups as used successfully in 

 Swarthmore for over four seasons. 



The principle of the Swarthmore top-bar 

 application of cups is this: The top-bar of 

 an ordinary brood-frame is dropped down 

 two inches, leaving space above the comb 

 in which to place the cells or the cages; 

 there being no vacant space in the frame, 

 no comb or particles of wax are built or at- 

 tached about the cells, which makes them 

 at all times perfectly removable from top, 

 either one at a time or by the barful, with- 

 out disturbance of the brood-nest. Not so 

 when the cells are placed in the middle of a 

 frame. When so placed, space must be left 

 below the cells. This space the bees will 

 quickly fill, building their combs all about 

 the cells, which renders them entirely im- 

 movable without a delicate surgical opera- 

 tion. All this takes time, and makes a mess; 

 but the bees can not be blamed, for it is 

 only natural for them to extend their combs 

 to the bottom-bar. If the cells are placed 

 in a Swarthmore holding-frame, all this mess 

 is avoided, and cell-protectors will never be 

 needed, for there will never be rupture about 

 the cells. 



Mr. Phillips makes the statement that, 

 should he place tack-supported cups in an 

 open frame, as suggested in my criticism. 

 May 15, he would have an arrangement 

 quite as handy as the Swarthmore; but he 

 would not, for the reason that he could not 

 examine, remove, nor inspect one of his cells 

 without removing the bar. Since Mr. Phil- 

 lips has acknowledged the Swarthmore open 

 frame an improvement, why not go one step 

 further— add a flange and reap all the bene- 

 fits from the labor-saving qualities of the 

 Swarthmore wooden flanged cup? 



If Mr. Phillips is unable to make Swarth- 

 more mating methods work, I am perfectly 

 willing to give any instruction he may need 

 to make the plan as successful in his hands 

 as it has been in others'. It is simply folly 

 to use large frames for mating queens when 



