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fHE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Koveviber 3 



Mr. Masters — With a 1/6-lnch bee-space ? 



E. R. Root — Tbe wedge increases it, so it malies very 

 nearly \i inch. 



Dr. Miiler — Is it not possible to have both sides wedged? 



E. R. Root— It would be possible, perhaps; only In the 

 ordinary S-frame hive there is not enough room for the rows 

 of sections and the fences. The wedges are about as thin as 

 they can be now. 



Dr. Miller — Mr. Pettlt's idea is to have the outside filled 

 with bees. There Is another point that just came to me that 

 may be of some advantage — that point Is this : With this ex- 

 tra number of bees, if Mr. Aspinwall's idea is correct, that 

 swarming may be prevented, there may be soma advantage in 

 having tbe extra bees on the outside. 



E. R Root — The idea was to get the outside rows as nicely 

 filled as the center. He does It by having a great number of 

 bees on the outside. 



Dr. Miller — Another advantage that I happened to learn 

 is that of putting the wedges in along with the fence. I do 

 not Isnow yet whether I like the fences, but I do like that one 

 point, that the wedge can be more easily put in with the 

 fence than it can with the plain follower, and very much 

 more easily pulled out. 



THE DEEP CELL OR DRAWN FOUNDATION. 



E. R. Root — I have here In my hand a piece of what we 

 call drawn foundation. The base of natural comb Is 3 1000 

 of an inch thick. We have got this down now so that it Is 

 pretty near the same thing. It is a very expensive article to 

 make; it has to be made very slowly. The sample that we 

 made last season had flat bases — flat bottoms, like the ordi- 

 nary flat-bottomed foundation, but we found that the bees 

 would take it, and in their effort to make the base natural 

 would plug In a lot of wax In the corners. They would thicken 

 the foundation and make it heavy. Sometimes in the rush of 

 the season they would not do it. Then Mr. Weed went to 

 work and made the bases natural, and that seemed to elimi- 

 nate the trouble. Some seasons the bees will enter that imme- 

 diately and draw it out Into comb and fill it; and other sea- 

 sons they will take the ordinary foundation as quickly as they 

 will this. 



Dr. Miller — In what seasons do they make the discrimi- 

 nation ? 



E. R. Root — If the honey-flow was coming In rapidly they 

 would take the ordinary foundation as readily as they would 

 this. If the honey was coming in slowly they would take the 

 drawn foundation in preference. 



The third stage that Mr. Weed Is working on now is some- 

 thing In the nature of a cross between drawn foundation and 

 common foundation. His idea is to make the foundation as 

 thin as the bees make it, 3/1000-inch thick. That Is about 

 the thickness of the ordinary bee-journal paper. We want to 

 approach that thickness as nearly as possible, because we 

 learn that the bees very rarely thin the base of the founda- 

 tion. Whatever surplus wax you put in there goes for naught. 

 If the foundation can be made as thin as the bees make It, we 

 have accomplisht considerable. [Mr. Root then exhibited 

 specimens of the foundation referred to.] The walls are made 

 in this way to stiffen the foundation, and also to give the bees 

 a surplus of wax. It can be made thus more rapidly, and can 

 approximate in price the price of ordinary foundation. When 

 we accomplish that it will be a long step in advance. If we 

 can give the bees a little encouragement by deepening the walls 

 of the foundation, it will often start them going. 



I have here a specimen of foundation with very shallow 

 walls. The foundation, while it might be sold for a little 

 more per pound, would be cheaper per square foot, and it 

 would be less liable to sag, because tlie walls would keep it 

 from sagging. It is also an advantage in pulling the founda- 

 tion off the rolls. In pulling ordinary foundation off of the 

 rolls, it has a tendency to stretch it. This foundation pulls off 

 much more easily. 



This foundation runs about 12 feet to the pound. Ordi- 

 nary foundation runs abount 7 or S feet to the pound. You 

 can see the saving there; it will be much cheaper. And I be- 

 lieve that to make foundation with deeper walls is going to 

 induce the bees to go into it more readily than with ordinary 

 foundation. 



QUEEN REARING — THE DOOLITTLB METHOD. 



E. R. Root — I will now pass to the subject of queen-rear- 

 ing. Nearly all queen-breeders are using the Doolittle 

 method, or something like it. If you know what the Doolittle 

 process of producing cell-cups is, you know It is simply to 

 take a round piece of wood and dip it in wax several times 

 until the wax comes off in the form of a queen-cell. A row of 

 those is fastened on a stick, and that is put in the center of 



a brood-frame ; then the cells are grafted with larvae and filled 

 with royal jelly — I should say the royal jelly Is put In and 

 then the larvK, and then the cells are put Into a hive that is 

 going to supersede the queen. The larva? are one or two days 

 old. After the cell-cups are put on the stick and fastened to 

 a brood-frame, it is put into the hive of a colony that is going 

 to supersede the queen. 



How do we know that they are going to supersede the 

 queen ? As we go through the apiary we find a colony that 

 has an old queen and has some queen cells started. That in- 

 dicates that the bees are probably going to supersede the 

 queen. We destroy all cells In that hive and put In one of 

 these Doolittle artificial cell cup frames. If It is left in there 

 during the honey season the bees will fill it out; if it Is not 

 during the honey season we gradually feed until the cells are 

 filled clear down. That seems like a great deal of work, but 

 It Is a very short process, and the result is far superior queens. 

 Just a little while ago I went through the apiary and lookt at 

 some of the "peanut" queens, and I was surprised to find 

 how large and how prolific they were. It seems to me that 

 they must be queens of long life. The thought is this, that 

 queens that have been on a journey for a time are shorter- 

 lived than those which one rears. Suppose that is true, does 

 It not stand to reason that bee-keepers should learn the art of 

 queen-rearing? A great deal depends on good queens. With 

 a good queen you can get a good, strong colony. 



Mr. Rauchf uss — Won't you be so kind as to explain the 

 system of rearing queens when you produce extracted honey? 

 There Is a difference under the Doolittle plan. 



E. R. Root — I do not know that I understand your ques- 

 tion. 



Mr. Rauchfuss — I mean the method of rearing queens 

 when you are producing extracted honey. Instead of looking 

 up colonies that are going to supersede their queens, we simply 

 hang a couple frames of brood up above. That will make the 

 bees start queen-cells on those two frames. After they have 

 started those queen-cells then we are getting ready to have our 

 cell-cups on hand and put them right on those frames, break- 

 ing out the cells that have been naturally started. In that 

 way we get about six cells, on the average, out of the 12. We 

 leave them in there until the proper time comes to take them 

 out and put them in the cages. We put them on a strong col- 

 ony until they are hatcht ; then go to work with your pocket- 

 knife and cut a hole in the extracting-case or super, making a 

 hole for the queen to go out and get mated. She will com- 

 mence laying, and whenever we feel disposed to change the 

 queen we can take out the queen-excluder and the new queen 

 will go down, and finally the old queen will disappear. That 

 is a very easy and convenient way of requeening your apiary. 

 It is a very satisfactory and a very cheap way of rearing 

 queens. It doesn't interfere with the work of the colony — 

 they keep right on filling the frames. 



E. R. Root — That is an adaptation of the Doolittle 

 method. I was stating a few minutes ago that good, prolific 

 queens are a very important thing. We want queens that 

 can produce a large number of eggs and get a strong colony. 

 Some of you know something about the methods by which 

 swarming may be controlled. Some time ago I went through 

 Mr. Coggshall's apiaries in New York. He has 13 apiaries. 

 He does not keep men at the out-yards ; he lets the swarms go. 

 The neighbors said he lost about half of his bees there. I 

 spoke to him about It, and he said he could produce bees at a 

 cost of 50 cents a colony. Suppose he can do that and then 

 produce big crops of honey ; isn't there a better way by which 

 he can keep those colonies ? I have been misunderstood a great 

 deal in regard to large colonies. At our out-yard we have no 

 men at all. I take care of those bees myself, and I do not 

 give them very much time, either. There is no one there at 

 all to look after them, but when they are managed properly 

 they have no swarms, or so few that It doesn't amount to any- 

 thing. Those colonies are tiered up one and two stories high. 

 We want queens that are going to fill those brood-chambers 

 full of brood; there will often be 12 to 16 frames of brood. 

 We have had a good many with 12 to 15 frames. We put on 

 the super as the honey season draws ou, the brood will hatch 

 out, and the probabilities are they will fill the upper story 

 with extracted honey, and that will be capt over ; the comb 

 honey super will also be filled out. I have had as many as 

 two or three stories filled out on top of that. If they were to 

 swarm out, the colony would be reduced and the whole thing 

 left weak. Honey Is low enough in its price. We should do 

 something if we can to control the swarming propensities and 

 keep the colonies strong and full. There are other methods 

 by which swarming can be controlled, but that is the most 

 practicable method. Mr. Dadant has very little swarming — I 

 think about 2 percent ; and sometimes he doesn't have even 

 that. He gets more honey, and It Is less trouble to manage 



