1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1049 



Qiieenless Bees. — In order to get a colony 

 of queenless bees to do good work in build- 

 ing- cells, there must be an abundance of 

 bees of the right age and a condition of 

 prosperitj'. Remove the queen; insert a 

 division-board feeder, and replace all combs 

 of unsealed brood and eggs with frames of 

 sealed or hatching brood from other colo- 

 nies. This serves a twofold purpose: It 

 relieves the nurses of the work of feeding 

 the unsealed larv^, thus forcing them to 

 concentrate their energies upon the prepar- 

 ed cells, and, besides, the hatching brood 

 soon materially increases their numbers. 



A colony with a ca<^ed queen. — Instead of 

 removing the queen from the colony, a bet- 

 ter way is to cage her and let her remain 



Fig. 1. 



in it. In doing this, see that the tin covers 

 the candy- hole in the cage. See illustration 

 (Fig. 1). Five daj's after the cells are ac- 

 cepted, slip a perforated zinc cage over them 

 as described in the next illustration, and 

 turn the tin around so that the bees can 

 have access to the candy and release her. 

 In putting on the perforated zinc cage, be 

 careful not to jar the cells. Fasten it on to 

 the cell-bar by means of four /g-inch nails 



m-m 



I Si 



%: 



Fig. 2. 



— two on each side — pressing them in with 

 the thumb or hive-tool. Don't attempt to 

 hammer them in, as this action will injure 

 the cells. The perforated zinc cage could 

 be put on and the queen released the day 

 after the cells are accepted; but the cel'.s 

 will then be unsealed, and the nurses will 

 not be abletogetat them as readily. Various 

 experiments have convinced me that cells 

 thus caged while unsealed are likely to be 

 somewhat smaller than those to which the 

 bees have unrestrained access. When once 



they are sealed, however, there is no dan- 

 ger on this score. 



It may seem strange to some of the more 

 inexperienced readers of Gleanings that a 

 colony with a good fertile queen will con- 

 sent to accept and care for cells; and so it 

 may be well for me, before I go further, to 

 notice the position that the queen occupies 

 in the colony. This is twofold; namely, 

 that of mother and mistress respectively (if 

 I may be allowed to use the latter term). 

 Wherever she has access, the production of 

 drone comb, drones, and queen- cells will 

 be kept under control; but whenever she be- 

 gins to fail (bringing about the supersedure 

 impulse), or she is excluded from any sec- 

 tion of the hive by the use of perforated zinc 

 or in any other way, the production of these 

 in the part to which she has no access be- 

 comes a comparatively easy matter. It is 

 by taking advantage of this fact that we 

 have the key to the situation and are able to 

 bring about the ideal conditions for queen- 

 rearing at will. 



The upper story of a strong colony. — The 

 plan as recommended by Mr. Doolittle is 

 certainly a good one. For those living in 

 the South, where the weather is warm, and 

 colonies can be brought up to their maxi- 

 mum strength easily, and kept at that for 

 an indefinite time, the super plan should 

 prove a success in the hands of all. I 

 should like to have some of those who object 

 to the Doolittle upper- story method of rear- 

 ing queens see the way it works in Jamaica 

 — see the percentage of cells accepted, and 

 their superior quality. I make the asser- 

 tion, and do it without fear of successful 

 contradiction, that queens maybe reared in 

 upper stories, equaling in every respect the 

 very finest reared by the natural-swarming 

 and supersedure impulses, or any of the 

 other methods in vogue. 



A divided brood-chamber. — No one should 

 attempt to raise cells in upper stories unless 

 his colonies are strong— z/^rjj/ strong. 

 Where this condition of maximum strength 

 is not to be easily had — as in the North, 

 where the building-up of colonies is a com- 

 paratively hard matter, and where queen- 

 rearing operations are often checkered on 

 account of unpleasant variations of climate 

 — a brood-nest, divided into sections with 

 perforated zinc, should be used. For this 

 purpose take a hive of not less than ten- 

 frame capacity; nail on the bottom- board, 

 and make two tight- fitting, perforated, 

 wood-bound zinc division-boards. They 

 should be made to lit so nicely that, when 

 the hive is closed, no bee can find a pass- 

 age above, below, or around them. Place 

 them parallel in the middle of the brood- 

 nest in such a manner that the same is di- 

 vided into three equal compartments — one 

 on each side of them and one between. 

 Each of these compartments will be capable 

 of containing three frames. The central 

 one is for two frames of brood and a frame 

 of cells, and the outer two are to be occu- 

 pied by the queen, she being transferred 

 from one to the other as occasion demands. 



