1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



21 



When any of the nuclei show signs of 

 weakness, take the queen and brush the 

 bees into the next box three days later, and 

 on the next round restock the empty boxes. 

 It is just as eas}' to run bees into screens 

 in this manner as to return them to the 

 hive; therefore any losses from any cause 

 may be quickly and cheaply made up. 

 With a little experience, however, au3' bee- 

 keeper can run his boxes for months with- 

 out loss, and at a minimum of expense. 



queens that a larger nucleus with more 

 bees and standard-size frames wmII do, and 

 I believe he has in a measure succeeded, 

 notwithstanding that there are many who 

 saj' that the thing can't be done. If, as Mr. 

 Greiner suggests, one can form, from one 

 strong colon}', fifty mating nuclei instead 

 of five, and if from that fiftj' a large part 

 of the queens can be fertilized, one can 

 hardl}' afford to stand on the outside and 

 saj' "the thing can't be done." But I 



mm' 



IdljIiUi' 



THREE HUNDRED MATING-BOXES SET OUT. 



If a handhold-like slot is cut directly over 

 the escape-hole, on the inside of the hive- 

 bod}', covered with a strip of drone-exclud- 

 ing zinc, any undesirable drones will be 

 sifted out as the bees pass from the hive- 

 body into the confining-screens. 



[Complaint has been made that the 

 other plan, offered by Swarthmore some 

 time ago, of mating queens in the small 

 single-comb boxes, was not a success. Al- 

 though he says he made it work j-et it was 

 evident that it would be a failure in the 

 hands of the average beekeeper. The plan 

 that he now ofters is an improvement in 

 that the mating boxes are larger, having 

 two combs. 



Mr. Henrj' Allej', the veteran queen- 

 breeder, has for years used small nuclei of 

 this kind, but haying- three or more frames. 

 Whether more than two are necessary for 

 the average bee-keeper I can not saj'; but 

 certain it is, Friedmann Greiner, one whom 

 I regard as exceedingly careful and con- 

 servative in his .>;tatements. sa3's he has 

 made the plan above outlined work to his 

 entire satisfaction, and if he has I am sure 

 other bee-keepers equally expert can; and 

 no one should undertake to rear queens in 

 a wholesale way, either for himself or for 

 the market, unless he is fairlj' expert. 



The problem that Swarthmore has been 

 working at, is to make a handful of bees, 

 as it were, do the same work in mating of 



would b}' no means advise one to trj' it on 

 a large scale at first. Let him try a dozen 

 boxes properly equipped, as did Mr. Grei- 

 ner, and if these work trj' more. Swarth- 

 inore appears from the photo to have some- 

 thing like one hundred, or did have last 

 summer in successful operation. 



It should, perhaps, be stated that these 

 small nuclei might (I don't know) not give 

 satisfactory results after the honey or 

 swarming season. Robbers might make 

 short work of them. — Ed.] 



Notes of Travel 



WATSOX'S RANCH IN NEBRASKA; SOME OTH- 

 KR INTERESTING FEATURES ABOUT THAT 

 GREAT farm; A POSSIBLE BEE-RANGE OF 

 5000 ACKES OF alfalfa; SOME OF WAT- 

 SON'S SAYINGS. 



In our last issue I was telling something 

 about harvesting the alfalfa on this great 

 ranch. I have since learned that the crop 

 of alfalfa put up this year on the ranch 

 w^as 10,000 tons. Just think of it: Ten tons 



