1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



647 



"How old should the larvas be when using 

 in transferring them to prepared queen- 

 cups?" 



' ' I generally use those not more than 24 

 hours old, and more often not over 18 hours. " 



' ' I should think it would be hard to see 

 and handle such small things." 



"In doing this I use quite strong glasses, 

 so that what appears to the naked eye as al- 

 most too small to see looks quite large 

 through the glasses, so that I am enabled to 

 do fully as good work with these 18-hour-old 

 larvae as I can with two- day-old larvae with 

 the naked eye. ' ' 



"That is a new thought, and something 

 which I think will be a help to me. But in 

 using these 18-hour-old larvae, about what 

 time will the queens emerge?" 



"A little later than just 11 days of 24 

 hours each from the date you transferred 

 them, if every thing is right for the most 

 perfect development of queens. If I should 

 say 11 days and from 6 to 10 hours, I should 

 be pretty near the truth; but I generally re- 

 move the cells from the cell-building colony 

 near evening of the tenth day; for if I wait 

 till the eleventh day something is quite sure 

 to transpire by way of bad weather, or some 

 unforeseen thing, to prevent my doing as I 

 would, so the matter is put off till a young 

 queen or two will emerge, when I am caused 

 the trouble of hunting those queens out 

 from a mass of bees, or run the chance of 

 losing them, or a ' botheration ' which may 

 arise later, through these young queens hav- 

 ing their liberty. ' ' 



"How long after th"^ queen emerges be- 

 fore she begins to lay?" 



" This is quite variable, in accord to the 

 time of the year, the state of the weather, 

 and the condition of the colonies or nuclei in 

 which they are at the time of their usual 

 mating-flight. During June, July, and Au- 

 gust, most youcg queens will be laying ten 

 days after they emerge from their eel's; but 

 in May and September it is often 12 to 18 

 days before I find them laying. I usually 

 figure that it is safe to say that a joung 

 queen will be laying 22 days after we have 

 placed the little larva in the queen- cell cup, 

 unless the weather is very unpropitious, or 

 it is very early or late in the season." 



' ' Then if I want queens for use the 5th of 

 June I would need to start them from the 

 10th to the 15th of May, would I not?" 



"Yes." 



' ' Well, I believe I can do this usual years, 

 but it hardly looks that way for this year, 

 unless it warms up at once. To rear queens 

 thus early in the season, how would you pro- 

 ceed?" 



"I would take the very strongest colony 

 I had in young bees, from which I would se- 

 lect out three combs having the youngest 

 brood in them, after which I would partition 

 off enough of one side of the hive to hold 

 these three combs so they could be easily 

 handled in this space, using queen excluding 

 metal for the partition. I would now stop 

 the entrance to the hive in front of these 

 three combs so that all bees which had ac- 



cess to them would have to go through the 

 perforated metal, when I would shake all 

 the bees off these combs unless I was sure 

 that the queen was not on them, when they 

 are to be set in this space that has the queen 

 excluded from it. ' ' 



"Would you start the cells the same day 

 that you prepared the hive thus?" 



"I generally wait one day after thus fix- 

 ing the hive before I put in the prepared 

 cell-cups, as, in the trials I have made, I do 

 not meet with as good success where I start 

 the cells the same day I prepare the hive 

 for them. ' ' 



"How many sticks of cell cups do you 

 usually give them thus early?" 



' ' Unless the colony is unusually strong 

 thus early, I do not give any stick of cells. 

 I prepare from 12 to 20 cells in a warm 

 room, then cover them up warm and take to 

 the hive, when I press them into the comb 

 all along the comb on both sides just above 

 the brood in the central frame, and the bees 

 will build them out just as well as when on 

 the stick; and, as a rule, more will be ac- 

 cepted thus early in the season than would 

 be the case where a stick is used." 



' ' Thank you. I will not bother you long- 

 er. Good by." 



HOFFMAN FRAMES "FOOL-PROOF IN NAIL- 

 ING. 



Many times have objections to nailing 

 Hoffman frames with V edges been set 

 forth. To get the V edges of the end- bars 

 all the right way seems to cause much trou- 

 ble, especially in the hands of inexperienced 

 help. Hence this was proclaimed as a seri- 

 ous objection against such frames by some, 

 at least, if they could be condemned for no 

 other reason. 'Tis true that the annoyance 

 and trouble caused by frames that are not 

 nailed right is quite unbearable, and almost 

 all who have handled such frames have ex- 

 perienced this. There is hardly an apiary 

 where the frames are all nailed up alike, 

 and "misfits" are found in nearly every 

 hive. Where two V edges come face to face, 

 the frames come too close together and 

 there is danger of mashing brood, especially 

 when moving the colony. 



The trouble does not in all cases come 

 from not knowing how to nail them, and 

 through carelessness or oversight; but bee- 

 keepers differ in opinions, hence the frames 

 are nailed in a certain way by one and quite 

 differently by another. The greater major- 

 ity, however, are nailed in a wrong way out 

 of sheer carelessness or without any thought 



