1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1135 



had come over 

 to see Mr. 

 Pratt perform 

 some "stunts" 

 in queen-rear- 

 ing, described 

 in his booklet, 

 which we in 

 Medina had 

 not been able 

 to accomplish. 

 One of them 

 was to get the 

 bees to supply 

 the grafted 

 larvae with 

 royal jelly. 

 The modus op- 

 erandi is so 

 carefully and 

 minutely de- 

 scribed in 

 Swarthmore's 

 book that it 

 will not be nec- 

 essary to go 

 into details 

 here. Suffice 

 it to say that 

 Mr. Pratt gave 

 us a practical 



demonstration of what he is able to do; but, 

 surprising to relate, after seeing him do it 

 I commun'cated the plan again to our boys 

 here, but they failed to make it work, and 



W. E. FLOWER. 



E. L. PRATT AMONG HIS BEES. 



finally went back to grafting both the jelly 

 and the larvae. It was so late in the sea- 

 son after arriving home that I did not have 

 a chance to try it myself. 



Mr. Pratt's specialty is 

 not only five-banders, but 

 ' ' golden-all-over ' ' bees. 

 He showed me some from 

 his best breeder where the 

 abdomens of the bees were 

 all bright yellow except a 

 small black tip at the very 

 end. He was confident he 

 could eliminate even that. 

 Mr. Selser reported that, 

 on a previous visit, hef ound 

 these extra yellow bees 

 gentle; but on the day of 

 my visit some of them 

 seemed a little disposed 

 to sting. As a matter of 

 fact, our host opened his 

 hives without veil or smo- 

 ker. In opening one par- 

 ticular hive he aroused the 

 ire of his pets; and then, 

 for the benefit of his vis- 

 itors, I suppose, he hunt- 

 ed up a veil or two that 

 had evidently never been 

 used, and a rattle-trap of 

 an antiquated Clark smo- 

 ker that looked as if it 

 had not had any fire in it 

 for something like eight 

 or ten years. As a mat- 

 ter of fact, our friend does 

 not use a smoker or veil 

 ordinarily in any of his 

 bee work. This will ac- 



