(,' I. I'; A N T N S IN B K K U T. '1^ U R K 



.lin.v, 1922 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



..,„„ I 



i.^^L 



pieces are 18Vi inches, besides what is 

 turned back towards the handle to be riv- 

 eted. These cross-pieces can be made any 

 length to suit the size of hive; but, as the 

 .side ]>ieces do not touch wlicn lifting, an 

 inch should be allowed for play. The cross- 



in my available books, I believe the idea is 

 original with us; if so, pray test the matter 

 and pass it on to American breeders if you 

 find it worth while. So far, this season, we 

 have not lost a queen, and every cage has 

 been loaded with bees by our method. 



Tlie basis of our plan is this: Bees con- 

 fined without comb or queen in a dark place 

 accept any queen readily (with exceptions). 

 We iiave three strong colonies as "cage 

 loaders." Each is in two stories with a 

 queen-excluder and queen below. Great 

 care is taken to allow no drones above. In 

 order to avoid bees too young to travel, no 

 brood is permitted to emerge above the ex- 

 cluder. It is put below when sealed. We 

 have a box with a removable lid. Tliis box 

 lias a hole near the bottom with wire cloth 

 inside, and the hole is the right size to shut 

 witli a cork. The lid is pierced with 40 

 holes (or it could be 100) in four rows of 

 10 eacli. l^etvveen these rows are strips of 

 wood to hold the queen cages upriglit with 

 their wire-cloth surfaces turned to the light. 

 A wedge device clamps the cages into posi- 

 tion firmly. Each hole corresponds to tlir 

 liole in a queen cage. 



About 10 a. m. we go to a " cage loader ' ' 

 colony and shake two or three frames of 

 bees into the box. Now jolt all bees into 

 bottom of box and put on tlie lid with the 

 cages. Open the hole in side of box, anil 

 Hiiioke — two puffs of cool, white smoke are 

 plenty, with a puff or two later if the bees 

 l;ig. As tlie cages ai'e liglit and well venti- 

 lilted and the box dark and full of smoke, 

 tliere ensues a mad scramble of bees to get 



Pile of supers supiiortL'tl Ijy" tliu hivuliftcr. The 



greater the weight of the supers, the firmer the 



lower one is grasped by the lifter. 



pieces when handles are level should be 

 five-eighths of an inch farther apart than 

 the hive is long. 



When the handles are lifted the cross- 

 jneces press against tlie ends of tlie box, and 

 the greater the weight the tighter the grip. 

 A broom liandle may be ripped in two and 

 bolted or riveted to handles to make thcni 

 round. A contrivance like the above, made 

 on a larger scale, can be used for moving 

 packing cases in spring and fall. 



Wanstead, Ont. Thomas Martin. 



30 ^ OC 



FILLING QUEEN CAGES 



Novel Plan for Loading Forty to One Hundred 

 Cages in Ten Minutes 



We have made a discovery (or invention, 

 or both) here in my yards, that should tend 

 materially to cheapen the price of queens 

 through reducing the work in shipping. 

 Ilitlicito it has taken us a long and tedious 

 time to load cages; now, in 10 minutes we 

 can load 40 queen cages with bees. As I 

 c;ui find no mention of ;inv such a device 



Queen lancs in i)(>.silion to be filled with bees by 

 the Cuniiell device. 



up above into the queen cages. We allow the 

 cages to get overcrowded before removing 

 and permit a few bees to escnjie from each 

 cage if necessary. The cages are now 

 closed, made up into packages of from two 

 to ten, depending on the driy's orders, and 

 r('ni()\tM| to ;i d:iik c(dl;ir to iillow the bees 



