AUGUST 15, 1916 



743 



I thought to myself, "There is my first dead 

 queen. ' ' She lay there for about a minute, 

 then I took my tweezers and gave her a 

 poke, and she immediately got up on her feet 

 an^l began running aiound over the comb as 

 if nothing had happened. I went into the 

 hive about a week after, and she was laying 

 all right. This seems to indicate that cut- 

 ting a wing off does give the queen more or 

 less of a shock. I have always thought that 

 it does. 



PLACE END-SPACING STAPLES LOW. 



In lifting a frame out of the hive one has 

 to be very careful that it doesn 't bump 

 against the end of the hive, and in so doing 

 crush some of the bees. I have hurt a good 

 many that way, and it made me feel bad to 

 see the poor little fellows crawling around 

 all humped iip as tho they were in great 

 pain; so, instead of putting the spacing- 

 staples just below the top-bar, I put them 

 clear to the bottom of the frame. With it 

 down there one can take out a frame with- 

 out hurting a bee, and not have to use any 

 precaution either. Of course if one wished 

 he could put in four staples — two above and 

 two below. 



Wallowa, Ore. B. R. Curtiss. 



[We doubt whether it is a shock to the 

 queen to have her wing clipped. So many of 

 them go on their way, unconcernedly as tho 

 nothing had happened that it seems hardly 

 possible that any queen could feel any shock. 

 Queens are sensitive, "highly strung" crea- 

 tures. On two occasions we have known 

 queens to double up in that peculiar way 

 merely because they were picked up. It 

 seems to be the result of fright. A number 

 have referred to it as " cramps. ' ' 



No less a beekeeper than W. L. Coggshall 

 advocates placing the end-spacing staple low 

 on the end-bar. — Ed.] 



Boosting the CeU-builders. 



On page 613, July 15, the editor says, 

 ' ' Make colony queenless for six days before 

 giving freshly grafted cells." Suppose the 

 following is given a trial. 



As soon as the "cell-starting" colony re- 

 fuses to do as good work as may be expected 

 with freshly grafted cells, make another 

 colony queenless and broodless, giving all 

 brood to the colony that has been used as a 

 cell-starter. Shake about half the bees from 

 this colony, No. 1, in front of the hive; then 

 shake the queen and bees from No. 2 from 

 all frames in front of same hive. You can 

 then shake the rest of the bees from No. 2 

 in front of the same hive, and allow the 

 queen from colony No. 2 and bees from 

 colony No. 1 to go into the hive together. 

 The fact that the bees that have been queen- 

 less for some time find a hive of brood when 

 they expected nothing but frames of honey 

 causes them to take most kindly to the 

 changed conditions. I have never lost a 

 queen this way, even with fertile workers in 

 tho hive. 



I usually make this change about every 



ten days, and about the sixth day I shake 

 a few frames of bees, about three to-^a 

 colony starting cells. In this way the colo- 

 nies are not run down. 



Some days ago I had one of these queenless 

 and broodless colonies start 102 cells in one 

 day. A colony that has been without a 

 queen and brood for about three hours will 

 do better work than one that has been 

 queenless for six days. At any rate, give 

 it a trial. 



Spring Hill, Tenn. Ben G. Davis. 



An Apparatus to Destroy Drones. 



I am sending you a drawing which repre- 

 sents a drone-trap. This will serve to pre- 

 vent swarming, provided the wings of the 

 queen have been clipped. 



Worker B^E Exit 

 AND Escape 



No. 1 is a perforated zinc sheet, allowing 

 the workers to pass thru, but not the drones, 

 which are thus obliged to pass up to the 

 pyramid, and on thru the tube 3 and to the 

 tank 4, which latter contains kerosene. 

 Inasmuch as the passage from No. 3 to the 

 tank is made of perforated zinc, the workers 

 have time to escape, and the queen, whose 

 wings have been clipped, cannot pass up 

 thru pyramid 2. The walls of the latter 

 should be of glass on the inside and tin on 

 the outside, to avoid the light, while escape 

 No. 3 should be of sheet zinc, perforated. 



Tiniote, Argentina. Francisco Peroy. 



When is a Select Queen Not a Select Queen? 



I am interested in Arthur Williams' article 

 on page 5^8, July 1. I wish the readers of 

 Gleanings would express themselves in re- 

 gard to the advertising of untested queens. 



Untested queens should be sold as untest- 

 ed, and there should not be two grades of 

 untested. One of the poorest-looking untest- 

 ed queens I ever received proved to be one 

 of the best. Did some one say the selection 

 was for color only? The advertisements do 

 not say what they are selected for. 



Queon-breeders can grade tested queens; 

 but what do thev know about the untested? 



