880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1 



quite the extreme; and before trying to tell 

 of the style of mating-box I use, it might be 

 well enough to consider these points. 



1. We must select a style of nucleus that 

 will maintain its numbers, and at the same 

 time be inexpensive if economy is to be 

 considered. 



2. One that can be given syrup or honey 

 without exciting robbing. 



3. One in which laying queens can be kept 

 for several days without being crowded for 

 room. 



4. One which permits of easy manipula- 

 tion 



5. One which will require only a few bees 

 to compose the miniature colony. 



When you complete a mating box accord- 

 ing to the above-named requirements you 

 have just exactly what I call an ideal; and 

 nothing short of these, neither one " just 

 as good," should be considered. 



Now for the box I use (it could be less 

 with good results) First, it is just a plain 

 box, made not only bee-tight but air-tight, 

 Sh inches deep. 8 J wide, 17 long. Now, that 

 seems large for a 'baby;" but when you 

 prepare it for four virgins at one time it is 

 only a baby. This is done by two partitions 

 of wire cloth, one running from end to end 

 and the other from side to side, thus giving 

 you four mating boxes in one, and it should 

 also be understood that the entrances must 

 not be crowded too close together. To over- 

 come this an entrance is made at each end 

 of the box and at each side of the box, 

 which, as will be seen, is only one entrance 

 to each division. I make my own frames 

 for these, and use a tiered-up box of this 

 size, the frames running crosswise with a 

 Jull swarm in drawing out these combs, 

 which is already supplied with brood when 

 making up these boxes or nuclei, which pre- 

 vents the cupful of bees from swarming 

 out. A small hole in the sides of each is 

 used to inject syrup. A sheet of enameled 

 cloth is spread over each, and a single cover 

 for the whole. The two flight-holes should 

 not be larger than f inch I prefer l inch 

 holes in order that only two or three bees 

 may defend the entire cluster. 



Keep a record of the ages of virgins, and 

 open the hives only when necessary. Try 

 just one of these, Mr. Editor, and own up 

 that it has not the objections you mention 

 on p. 140. This is a design of my own, so 

 far as I am concerned, but I ran across it 

 by accident, 



Newtopia, Ala , March 8. 



[We have tried a mating- arrangement 

 that was quite similar to the one above de- 

 scribed, but on a much larger hive; but it 

 had the objection that the clusters would 

 not form into one compact sphere. Please 

 let us know how largely you tested out this 

 arrangement, and whether or not it gives 

 equal satisfaction the entire season through. 

 Something that will work nicely at one 

 time of the year will give all kinds of trou- 

 ble at another season.— Ed.] 



THE FERRIS SYSTEM OF PRODUCING 

 COMB HONEY, AND SWARM CONTROL. 



The Ferris Comb-honey Attachment; its Detail 

 of Construction. 



BY A. K. FERRIS. 



Continued from page SOS. 

 [In our next issue Mr. Ferris will continue his treat- 

 ment of comb-honey production. We were compelled 

 to divide the chapter, owing to lack of space in this 

 jssue.— Ed.] 



We now suppose that we have reached the 

 time when the flow is commencing on white 

 clover. We have dequeened both divisions 

 of our hive, and either made a nucleus with 

 each queen or else destroyed both the old 

 queens, and we have also either purchased 

 or reared a batch of queens early enough so 

 they are laying, or at least we have a batch 

 of nearly ripe queen- cells from our best 

 breeder. After this large double colony has 



CENTER WIRE STAY 



FIG. 4.-FERRIS COMB-HONEY ATTACHMENT. 



been queenless twenty-four hours, both di- 

 visions are united and the whole is given a 

 queen or cell, or it may be given immediate- 

 ly after removing the queens if protected. 

 We now take a story of the best frames 

 of brood and place it on the bottom, and con- 

 fine the queen to this with an excluder, or 

 give it one of the queen cells previously 



FIG. 5.— COMB- HONEY ATTACHMENT SHOWING 

 END PROTECTION. 



reared. This is as used for a fourteen frame 

 Langstroth hive; but where smaller hives 

 are used so that the queen is liable to be- 

 come crowded I prefer about half the frames 

 in this story to be full sheets of foundation. 



