1905. 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



13 



queen-rearing appliances we have 

 used in Swarthmore with so much 

 success and satisfaction. 



"When I first entered the queen- 

 rearing field the laborious methods 

 employed quite discouraged me. To 

 continue in the business I must needs 

 hire help or devise means to reduce 

 labor. The latter I set out to do, and 

 the things here before you are the 

 results of my efforts." 



Both the old and the more recent 

 queen-rearing methods were briefly 

 reviewed and the necessity for a sep- 

 arable and easily removable queen 

 cell was clearly shown. To avoid the 

 delicate surgical operations, we were 

 compelled to perform by old methods 

 (previous to the emerging of the 

 young queens), a wooden cup is now 

 used. 



The top application of the 

 "Swarthmore" pressed queen cups 

 was explained and the many labor- 

 saving points of a flange cup were set 

 forth by demonstration. 



The process of waxing the cups, 

 pressing the cells and grafting them 

 without royal jelly was gone through 

 with and numerous questions from the 

 floor were answered. The use of the 

 Swarthmore open-top holding-frames 

 and the manner of applying cell-bars, 

 incubating and confining cages to 

 them through slits in the sheets, from 

 the tops of the hives, without dis- 

 turbance to the bees, was also dem- 

 onstrated, and the simplicity and la- 

 bor-saving points of each carefully 

 set out. 



The speaker then branched into the 

 wholesale possibilities of the Swarth- 

 more plan, showing how large num- 

 bers of queen cells may be secured 

 and cared for. 



A number of small .cups, set side 

 by side in a little frame, so as to 

 resemble a coinb in which the breed- 

 ing queen will deposit eggs to save 

 the long process of grafting by hand, 

 attracted considerable attention and 

 brought forth much comment and 

 many questions. It was shown how 

 these little cups, each containing an 

 tgg, could be drawn from the frame, 

 slipped into holding-shells and given 

 to the bees for queen-rearing, and 

 how other cups could be replaced in 

 the frame for future use in cell get- 

 ting. 



Previous to his explanation of the 



miniature mating boxes the speaker 

 quoted from his book, "Baby Nuclei," 

 the following words of introduction: 



"It was in 1881 that I first began to 

 experiment with section-box nuclei 

 for mating queens. Some three or four 

 years later the plan I had been com- 

 mercially successful with was pub- 

 lished in the journals of that day and 

 in pamphlet form, under the title of 

 "Pratt's New System of Nuclei Man- 

 agement." Never to this day have I 

 to any extent used more than a hand- 

 ful of bees in a little box for the sole 

 purpose of mating my queens. My 

 little baby mating boxes have been 

 condemned by nearly all the profes- 

 sionals, including Mr. Alley, in whose 

 yard I had the pleasure of studying 

 with profit for some three or four 

 seasons. In the face of all this oppo- 

 sition I have clung to my little mat- 

 ing boxes and have improved them 

 from year to year, until we now have 

 what is called the "Ideal." Time and 

 time again have I called attention to 

 the woeful waste of bees, labor and 

 material by the older mating meth- 

 ods — but I could get no hearing until 

 a recent year. It so happened that I 

 succeeded in mating a large number 

 of queens from my little boxes fitted 

 into frames and hung on stakes, also 

 attached in different ways to the 

 sides of hives. My description of 

 these experiments was admitted in 

 part to "Gleanings in Bee Culture," 

 which renewed interest in small mat- 

 ing nuclei, and the question now 

 seems to command wide interest be- 

 cause of the wondrous saving in ex- 

 pense over any other method of 

 queen mating." 



In opening the queen mating ques- 

 tion, the speaker said that twenty-five 

 bees will mate a queen. Fifty will do 

 it better, but more than a small tea- 

 cupful is a positive disadvantage. The 

 design of the Swarthmore mating nu- 

 cleus box was shown, and the manner 

 of hanging them to little T stands 

 driven into the ground together with 

 the manner employed to supply them 

 with small combs and storing them 

 with honey; also how bees are obtain- 

 ed and supplied in small lots to each 

 little mating box. 



While on the question of queen 

 introduction, Mr. Pratt said: "It was 

 Mr. Doolittle who showed us how to 

 successfully introduce virgin queens 



