THE AMERICAN APIGULTURIST. 



187 



gest circulation and are most suc- 

 cessful generally, are tliose pub- 

 lished but once a montli. 



— Customers who order the queen 

 and drone-traps will please state 

 whether they have at hand suita- 

 ble nails and tacks for putting 

 them together. If not, we will 

 send for ten cents, all the nails 

 needed, making $3.60 per dozen 

 for the traps in the flat. 



— If you want to know the best 

 methods for introducing queens, 

 see the "Apiculturist" for May, 

 1886. 



— A good method for forming 

 nuclei may be found in the '■'Api- 

 culturist" for June, 1886. 



— There is no better work on bee- 

 culture than tlie bound volumes of 

 the "Apiculturist" commencing 

 with the May number, 1883, and 

 running to January 1, 1885. These 

 books are handsomely bound in 

 cloth and are sold at a very low 

 price. 



APICULTURIST BEE FARM 

 NOTES. 



By Henky Alley. 



THE QUEEN NUR6ERY AND HOW TO 

 USE IT. 



The more beekeepers learn about 

 the queen nurserj', the more they 

 seem to appreciate the advantages 

 of such a valuable implement of 

 the apiary. We do not expect 

 that the queen nursery will come 

 into general use, but nearly all 

 beekeepers need more or less such 

 cages (if not a full nursery) as are 

 here described. 



As but few understand the dif- 



ferent uses to which the nursery 

 can be applied, we will give a brief 

 description of one tliat has been 

 in use for a long time in the Bay 

 State Apiary. 



A queen nursery is a set of cages 

 so made that it requires only 

 about eighteen of them to till a 

 Standard Langstroth frame. Such 

 a cnge, illustrated by Fig. 1, is 

 merel}^ a block of wood 2^ inches 

 square by | of an inch tliick, with 

 a hole 1^ inches in diameter made 

 through it ; both sides are covered 

 with wire cloth. Two other small 



Nursery Cage. 



holes are made in one edge of the 

 cage. One of them is used for in- 

 serting a queen cell and also as a 

 door for putting bees into the cage 

 when necessary ; the other for a re- 

 ceptacle for food, — which consists 

 of honey in a sponge, or of sugar 

 and honey, either of which works 

 satisfactorily. Fig. 2 represents 

 the full nursery of eighteen cages. 



As we have devised a new nur- 

 sery which is a great improvement 

 on the above, I will now describe 

 that. 



The new nursery cage is 2^ jn. 

 long, 2 inches wide and"^ of an inch 

 thick. Like the old style it is 

 simply a block of wood with a hole 

 made directly througli it. It also 

 has a cavity in one ed^Q for insert- 

 ing the food. It takes twenty-four 

 such cages to fill one Langsti'oth 

 frame. Only one side of tills cage 

 is covered with wire cloth, whfle 



