890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15 



a handful of bees in a little box will do the 

 work better. 



For Mr. Phillips' information I wish to 

 say that I have had some experience with 

 mating from full frames in different-sized 

 colonies; and I can say that never has a 

 queen-cell been torn down by the worker 

 bees unless some rupture has first been 

 made in or about the cell by a queen or a 

 man. 



I strengthen my statement : ' ' Queen-cells 

 built upon Swarthmore flanged wooden cups 

 may be placed in full colonies directly queens 

 are removed, and the virgins hatching from 

 them will be allowed to live and mate, pro- 

 viding the cells do not hatch under twelve 

 hours from the time of removing the laying 

 queens." 



[To this Mr. Geo. W. Phillips, our head 

 apiarist, replies:] 



We thank Mr. Pratt for the valuable sug- 

 gestions which he makes from time to time; 

 but it appears that, to do all he advises, 

 would necessitate the abandoning of our 



goes ahead of either — at least I am satisfied 

 that I should prefer it. 



The round cell cups can be used the same as 

 the flanged in the connection Mr. Pratt men- 

 tions. I have tried giving cells somewhat 

 after the manner he indicated; and at first, 

 fearing they would fall out, I bored my holes 

 but partly "through, finishing with a smaller 

 bit, thus leaving a shoulder; but a little use 

 convinced me that even this was unneces- 

 sary, for, boring a clean hole with a bit of the 

 correct size, each cell would remain nicely 

 in position. 



The last discussion in Gleanings on this 

 subject set me to thinking; and before many 

 days I had found Mr. Huber Root's old model 

 for a cell-frame, and, with a httle extra 

 fixing, adopted the illustrated device which 

 I have used with success ever since. It is 

 a regular Hoffman frame containing three 

 cell-bars, as shown in the illustration. The 

 bars are removable and interchangeable. 

 The unsealed cells are on the top-bar, the 

 older ones below, and a slate outside the hive 

 shows the ages of cells within. This frame 



THE ROOT CO.'S QUEEN-REARING FRAME WITH REMOVABLE AND INTERCHANGEABLE 



CELL-BARS. 



present system of queen-rearing — a system 

 that is entirely simple and satisfactory, and 

 adopting another with which we are ill ac- 

 quamted. 



I am still inclined to think that no method 

 of preparing cells is as good as the old Doo- 

 little mode of grafting. Why persist in talk- 

 ing about temperature being too high or too 

 low for using royal jelly? I repeat my for- 

 mer statement, that any temperature that 

 permits the safe transferring of larvae per- 

 mits also the use of royal jelly; and why be- 

 speak its use needless, when, besides its 

 other benefits, a large percentage more of 

 cells will be rejected by its non-use? Mr. 

 Pratt, I believe, does not graft at all, but 

 uses a cell within a cell, the queen laying di- 

 rectly in the smaller one, after which it is 

 removed and placed in position. This, al- 

 though an improvement, somewhat resembles 

 the Willie Atchley method. But I really be- 

 lieve that the Doolittle method of grafting 



■is taken from the hive only when cells are to 

 be removed; and in grafting, the uppermost 

 bar alone is handled. 



As stated before, I had already tried Mr. 

 Pratt's "baby" nuclei, but was unable to 

 make them work. Now, the system at the 

 time when I tried it was that of fastening 

 the nuclei to a full colony with normal lay- 

 ing queen, the workers having access to all 

 the compartments. That, I believe, was the 

 plan that Messrs. Hooper Bros, -and G. M. 

 Doolittle tried also, and a better means of 

 getting rid of virgin queens has not yet 

 been described. But the Pratt system is 

 different now. and I wish to confess frankly 

 that I like the miniature nuclei well; and 

 should it be my good fortune to devote one 

 more summer of my life to queen-rearing, I 

 have no reason to doubt that I shall have oc- 

 casion to bless the "babies," and bless their 

 "papa" too. G. W. P. 



Medina, 0. 



