1050 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15 



Thus the frames will be kept well supplied 

 with brood. 



The advantages of " queen- right " over 

 queenless bees as cell-builders ought to be 

 plain to every queen- breeder. First, to re- 

 move queens from strong colonies means 

 practically no honey from them for the sea- 

 son. Second, where queens are reared in 

 large quantities these numerous queenless 

 colonies become a severe tax on the rest for 

 brood, and, besides, entail additional work 

 on the part of the apiarist. Third, there is 

 always danger of having the bees find some 

 unsealed larvEe, unobserved b}' the bee keep- 

 er, in the combs of sealed brood given, and 

 over these they will undoubtedly build cells, 

 which, if they are not discovered and de- 

 stroyed in time, will soon hatch and do mis- 

 chief among the good ones. This also ne- 

 cessitates vigilance on the part of the apia- 

 rist. Fourth, there is the risk, if only seal- 

 ed brood be given, of having at some time 

 or other to contend with fertile workers in 

 colonies which are thus kept constantly 

 queenless. ISow, all these objectionable fea- 

 tures are eliminated by using queen right 

 colonies. Honey can be stored as usual; no 

 brood need be supplied, as eac!h colony has 

 a normal laying queen; no fear need be en- 

 tained of cells being started other than 

 those given by the apiarist; nor is there any 

 risk of having to contend with fertile work- 

 ers. There are some beekeepers, however, 

 who never seem able to make a colony with 

 a laying queen work satisfactorily at cell- 

 building. These had better use one of the 

 two kinds first described. It is unneces- 

 sary to add that all queen-rearing colonies 

 must be fed when honey is not coming in 

 from natural sources. 



PREPARING CELLS TO GRAFT. 



Every up-to-date queen-breeder is famil- 

 iar, or ought to be, with the Doolittle meth- 

 od of queen- rearing. As soon as this is 

 mentioned, the mind instinctively recalls 

 lamp, melted wax, rake-tooth, water, etc. 

 Many of us fellow bee keepers know what 

 it is to dip and twirl and pull off those cells 

 hour after hour. Now, the method here de- 

 scribed is, in essence, the Doolittle. True, 

 it is metamorphosed, yet it is but an out- 

 growth of the old, and the principles involv- 

 ed are the same as those set forth by Mr. 



Fig. 3. 



Doolittle years ago. The illustrations giv- 

 en in this are so self-explanatory as hard- 

 ly to need comment. A represents a sec- 

 tion of a wooden cell- cup. The hole is 

 made in a round wooden block U in. in di- 

 ameter and 1^5 in. long. The hole itself is 

 Jl in. in diameter, and {^ in. deep, and the 

 inside is coated with a thin film of wax. 



In using the wooden cell-cup, one is re- 

 lieved of the necessity of making wax cells. 

 In it one has an everlasting cell. All that 

 it is necessary to do in order to use it agai^n 

 is to trim off the out-growth after the virgin 

 hatches, and let the bees have access to it 

 in order that they may remove the residue 

 of royal jelly. If they get out of shape at 

 any time, they can be re-formed by the use 

 of a cell-forming stick such as is illustrat- 

 ed in Fig. 4. 



Will tiees ac- 

 cept wooden cell 

 cups as readily 

 as those made of 

 wax? When the 

 former are kept 

 in good order, 

 they will. I had 

 some doubt about 

 the matter at the 

 start, so did one 

 of my assistants 

 in the yard; and 

 so we made a se- 

 ries of experi- 

 ments which all 

 proved that one 

 was as good as 

 the other. In the 

 last of these, two 

 frames of each 

 kind were used. 

 Upon examina- 

 tion we found that 

 the first one of 

 each kind had 10 

 cells accepted (14 

 were given) , and 

 the secoqd had 14 

 each. 



Bee-keepers are 

 of all kinds, and very often what proves a 

 success in the hands of one proves an abso- 

 lute failure with others. There are some 

 who will make a success in using the wood- 

 en cell cups, and others who. for one rea- 

 son or another, will fail to do so. In the 

 latter case, a wax cup can be used in con- 

 junction with it as shown in section b. Fig. 

 3. These wax cell cups may be as frail as 

 natural embryo queen-cells, as their base 

 is completely protected by the block in which 

 they are inserted. Mr. Huber Root, one of 

 the youngest members of The A. I. Root 

 Co., has invented a little machine by the 

 use of which thousands of these cell cups 

 can be made in an hour. The method of 

 placing these cells in position is distinctly 

 shown in the adjoining illustration. The 

 cell-stick shown is also used for re-forming 

 wooden cell cups as described above. The 

 method of fastening these wooden blocks to 

 the cell-frames is simple and effective. The 

 projecting nail-points in the bottom of each, 

 as shown in the illustration, serve the pur- 

 pose of pinning them in position. It is an 

 easy matter, and requires very little pres- 

 sure to get the nail-points to penetrate the 

 soft pine horizontal bar. 



To be continued. 



Fig. 4. 



