120 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



One of J. M. Hermann's coirugated-iron bee-sheds at Arizona. Mr. Herman has seven of these in all, 

 which hold 800 colonies. 



to stick out about Y^ inch so that they can 

 be pulled easily when I wish to remove the 

 screen after moving. 



I close the entrance with two strips of 

 wood. The lower piece is two inches wide, 

 and as long as the entrance, so that it will 

 just slide into it. To the upper side of this 

 a piece one inch square is nailed firmly. 

 One nail thru this into the front of the hive 

 keeps the entrance closed most securely, 

 and yet the whole thing can be quickly re- 

 moved. 



Chandler, Ariz. 



I once had almost a thousand colonies in 

 one apiary in a mesquite location for six- 

 teen months, and they did well, but 300 

 colonies is enough in an alfalfa location. 



A MOVING SCREEN. 



The screen that I hold in my hand in the 

 picture is for moving bees. The frame is 

 made of eight pieces of wood, covered with 

 screen, the dimensions being such that there 

 is about 1/16 of an inch play when slipped 

 down over the top of a hive. I drive fin- 

 ishing-nails thru the front and back of the 

 frame into the hive, allowing the nailheads 



A " NEW " STARVATION METHOD OF QUEEN INTRODUCTION 



BY J. ANDERSON 



In Gleanings for Nov. 1, page 896, Mr. 

 A. T. Rodman gives under the above head- 

 ing a description of his method of introduc- 

 ing queens. This plan, however, is not new 

 on this side of the Atlantic. It is thus 

 described in the 1904 edition of " Simmins' 

 Modern Bee Farm:" "The three things of 

 importance to be observed are as follows : 

 (1) Keep the queen quite alone for not less 

 than thirty minutes; (2) she is to be with- 

 out food meanwhile; (3) and to be allowed 

 to run down from the top of the frames 

 after darkness has set in, by lamplight." 

 Simmins proceeds to suggest a match-box 

 as a suitable temporary receptacle for the 

 queen, but continues : " My own practice is 

 to cany the queens in the vest pockets, in 

 small tubular cages made of fine perforated 

 zinc or tin, one end permanently closed, 

 while the other is pressed into a piece of 



foundation after the queen is in. When 

 ready remove the foundation and let her 

 run into the hive." 



Cheshire made exhaustive tests of the 

 Simmins method, and gives his testimony 

 in Vol. II. — Practical (published in 1887) : 

 " I tried many dozens of experiments, and 

 found that by Mr. Simmins' method it was 

 quite easy, not only to introduce but to get 

 one queen to lay in half a dozen distinct 

 hives in a single week." 



There are very many beekeepers " in this 

 locality " who use the Simmins fasting 

 method with uniform success. It is not' 

 new, but it is, nevertheless, very interesting 

 to find that there has been rediscovered in 

 all its details a method described by Sim- 

 mins more than thirty years ago. 



Aberdeen, Scotland. 



