1906 



(iLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1109 



move the frames during that three years' 

 time on tin rabbets will be very apjyrefinbly 

 less than with plain wooden rabbets, and 

 will not require more than half the time. 

 [I understand that Mr. Hutchinson refers 

 to the old-style plain Langstroth frame, with- 

 out any spacing-attachments, the same hang- 

 ing on wooden ral)liets. This is what he 

 recommends in his lx)ok. AMth such a frame 

 a wood rabbet is Ijetter, in my opinion, than 

 a tin one. Frames shoukl l)e fastened just 

 secure enough so that when the hive is pick- 

 ed up and carried across the bee-yanl they 

 will not jar loose. But instead of an un- 

 spaced Langstroth frame on a icood rabbet 

 I personally prefer a Hoffman, or, better, a 

 metal-spaced frame on a tin rabbet. Thal> 

 such a frame will not he any harder to re- 

 lease than an old-style loose Langstroth 

 frame on a wood rabbet is true "in this lo- 

 cality; '" and, besides, it will have the advan- 

 tage that, in moving, there will be no danger 

 oi the frames getting too close together, 

 mashing Ijees and killing brood. — Ed.] 



Some of our more discriminating readers 

 will probably discover that this and the 

 last issue of Gleanings is printed with a 

 brand-new face of type. The heavy editions 

 printed on the old type had worn it down to 

 such an extent that it would not give a 

 gootl letter-press effect. 



D() not forget that now is the season to ad- 

 vertise honey at your county fairs. Build 

 up your own home market, and do not lie 

 afraid to go into the show business, ^^^hen 

 I say "show business"" I mean the handling 

 of bees insitle of a wire-cloth cage, liarehead- 

 ed and bai'earmed. 



NOMINATION NOTICE. 



The following, fi'om General Manager 

 N. E. France, will explain itself: 



Each National Bee-keepers' As.sociation member is 

 hereby requested to mail to office of General Manager, 

 on or before Sept. 29, his nomination for offices now 

 tilled as follows: 



President. C. P. Dadant; Vice-president, G. E. Hil- 

 ton: Sec'y, W. Z. Hutchinson: Gen. Manager. N. E. 

 France: Director, Jas. A. Stone: Director, G. M. Doo- 

 Httle: Director. R. A. Holekamp. N. E. France. 



Platteville, Wis.. Aug. 25. • 



BABY NUCLEI FOR CHILDREN; SOME CHAR- 

 ACTERISTICS OF BABY NUCLEI IN 

 GENERAL. 



It is. perhaps, not understood that a baby 

 nucleus will accept virgin or laying queens at 



various ages much more readily than a 

 strong colony or a strong nucleus. One of 

 the great points in favor of miniature hives 

 f(n' queen-rearing is that they will treat l)oth 

 queens and the apiarist with kindly consiil- 

 eration. Indeed, almost any child can han- 

 dle them when it would he unwise fer him 

 to tackle a full-sized colony. The fact that 

 these babies can be opened and handled 

 without smoke is another, proof of their tra(v 

 taljie nature. It is only in rare cases that a 

 smoker is needed at all. While in other 

 ways these babies are difficult to hamlle, or, 

 rather, I should say, difficult to keep going, 

 they will tolerate extraordinary conditions- 

 that a strong colony will not accept for a 

 moment. 



Some of our twin nuclei show a record ot' 

 mating of some 16 to 17 queens after only 

 two months of actual use. This result is 

 made possilile in jjart by caging an extra 

 virgin two days l)efore the other virgin al- 

 ready in the hive (and loose) is ready to be- 

 gin laying. On the day that she lays a 

 frame of eggs, the slide of the introducing- 

 cage of the captive queen is slippeii by, 

 when the bees release her in the matter of 

 two or three hours; so that it comes to pass 

 that not more than a few hours will elapse 

 when there will be no queen running free in 

 the hive. But before another virgin is caged, 

 mind you, the second tpieen is allowed sole 

 possession until she reaches an age when she 

 will probably lay within two days. As the 

 date of expectancy does not always mature, 

 some nuclei will not begin to do as well as 

 others; but it is astonishing even then what 

 they will do. 



HAULING BEES TO OUT-YAKDS, WITHOUT 

 HORSES. 



I HAVE already given an intimation to our 

 readers how we were using our autoiiKjbile 

 in going to and from our out-yards. On the 

 front cover page of this issue, and in an il- 

 lustration on page 1138, it will be seen how 

 we hauled one load of queen-mating nuclei 

 from the Harrington yard to the basswood 

 apiaiy, a distance of some four miles. As 

 we were putting up our new building, our 

 horses were all busy; consequently, if the 

 bees were to be moved at all they would 

 have to be moved by the horseless vehicle. 

 Robbers were teasing the baby nuclei at the 

 Harrington yard; and as nearly all the babies 

 were at the basswood apiary we decided to 

 put the whole number in one place, where 

 we could look after them a little closer. We 

 accordingly put on the detachable carrying- 

 box and loaded up some foi'ty twin nuclei 

 with l)ees or eighty single nuclei. These 

 were packed closely, and cushioned with 

 straw. The roads were none too smooth; 

 but we drove the bees down to the basswood 

 yard, and in the course of a few minutes 

 more every nucleus was placed on its stand, 

 and the entrances opened. 



Some of the weaker nuclei were being 

 robbed at the time they wei'e closed before 

 being moved. We shut the thieves in with 

 the bees already in the hive. These, when 



