46 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



March, 



to the bees from any danger of over- 

 heating or snffocating or the melting 

 down of the combs, the abundant ven- 

 tilation keeping them in perfect con- 

 dition. It will, therefore, be seen that 

 this device renders migratory bee 

 keeping entirely practicable because of 

 the safety to the bees and the opera- 

 tives and the rapidity with which the 

 work may be done. It may also be 

 mentioned that thi-s device enables the 

 employment of a large proportion of 

 unskilled help in the apiary because of 

 the safety from stings. Thus is re- 

 moved one of the chief obstacles to 

 keeping bees on a large scale. Fur- 

 ther when the bees are removed from 

 the cellar in the spring we frequently 

 hear of trouble from their stinging oi>- 

 erations and, in taking the first flight, 

 getting confused and mixed with tht- 

 bees of otner hives, thu-s causing some 

 colonies to become very strong and 

 other so weak as to be worthless. It 

 is obvious that by the use of this stand 

 and bottom board the npiarist is en- 

 abled to place all the colonies of an 

 apiary upon their summer stands and 

 adjust them all for flight in the even- 

 ing. The following day, or as soon 

 thereafter as the bees can fly, they 

 will all commence flying together and 

 no confusion will result. 



In the spring, when the colonies are 

 at their lowest numerical strength, it 

 is desirable to contract the entrance 

 in order to conserve the heat, and at 

 other seasons contraction is desirable 

 if the colony is small or if the bees are 

 disposed to rob. This bottom board 

 allows of the greatest possible lati- 

 tude in the regulation of the size of 

 the entrance and hence is particularly 

 valuable for this purpose. 



Bees sometimes engage in robbing 

 in such a wholesale way as to result 

 in great loss of bees and honey. Thi.> 

 device enables a perfect and effective 

 control of them by means of the en- 

 trance to the hive, which may be en- 

 tirely closed, as for cellar wintering, 

 and the bees left confined until night- 

 fall or until the danger of robbing is 

 past. Also in hot climates the tem- 

 perature frequently rises to such a de- 

 gree as to melt down the combs in the 

 hives, causing great loss to the 

 apiarist. At such times l)ees are incit- 

 ed to rob and much damage has been 

 occasioned in this way. Abundance of 

 free ventilation, such as may be. af- 

 forded by lowering the bottom board 

 or removing it entirely, allowing the 

 air to circulate freely tarough the 

 sides and front and up through the 



hive, will afford the greatest relief pos- 

 sible in such an emergency. 



The adjustments of this stand and 

 bottom board are ample to meet the re- 

 quirements of every apiarist and so far 

 as adjustments to a bottom board are 

 necessary, it may be said of this de- 

 vice, that they are universal. It is 

 also simple in consti'uction. Any one 

 who has the ingenuity to assemble the 

 parts of and put together, supers an(i 

 hives can as easily assemble and cous 

 struct these combined stands and bot-i 

 torn boards. 



Buffalo, N. Y., Jan. 26, 1905. 



THE LARVAL QUEEN. 



Conditions Whicli Influence Its Development. 



By John M. Davis. 



I HAVE had my eye on that fellow, 

 A. C. Miller, for several years— 

 ever since he wrote in The Ameri- 

 can Bee-Keeper that "I say, 

 (with a big I) " that Alley's method 

 is the best," referring to rearing 

 queens. You just give some of our 

 prolific writers rope and time, and 

 they will hang themselves, as the Dea- 

 con says "onbeknonst." See our dear 

 Brother Miller now dangling at the 

 end of a hemp. Got there himself- 

 and slipped off the Scaffold. Wal, 

 Wal, sich be the ways of frail human- 

 ity. 



Probably he has reformed, but if 

 so he ought to advise us of his change 

 of base, and give some of us the pleas 

 ure of welcoming him into the fold. 



In your January, 1905, issue page^ 

 3, he truthfully says: "In a normall 

 colony a queen emerges into an at- 

 mospliere of warmth and high hu- 

 midity, and has accessible an abun- 

 dance of nutritious and stimulativt 

 food." Just I'ight; and in a commer- 

 cial queen yard, subject to all th€ 

 changes of weather in Tennessee ano 

 north of this latitude, including Mr 

 Alley's and Mi*. Miller's locality, this 

 cannot, as a rule, be obtained with a 

 teacup of bees of any age. 



In m.y humble opinion, based on 

 many years of practical experienct 

 and close observation, when a queer 

 emerges from the cell she is far fron: 

 being a fully developed insect. She Is 

 a soft, mushy thing, easily mashed 

 unless held in her cell by the bees. It 

 afterswarming this never occurs in a 

 commercial queen-rearing yard, where 

 only one cell is placed in the nxicleus 

 These queens just from the cells need 



i 



