AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



639 



her for the breeding queen, which 

 should be caged for- five days, and then 

 allowed to liberate herself by eating 

 away bee candy. Care, however, is 

 required to see that at the expiration of 

 nine days no queen-cells are left in the 

 hive before exchanging the queens. 



A colony so prepared will feed the 

 new queen abundantly, and all the first 

 larvae that hatch, wliich are the only 

 suitable larvai to use in Mr. Doolittle's 

 system of queen-rearing. However, I 

 prefer to rear queens from the egg, or 

 larva just hatched, and would select the 

 tirst eggs laid by the queen treated as 

 above advised. Should any of the eggs 

 hatch before removal for queen-rearing, 

 we may be sure that the larvae will be 

 suitable for queen-rearing until they are 

 a day and a half old. The rearing of 

 queens from larviB under any other cir- 

 cumstances is strongly disapproved of. — 

 Read at the Ohio State Convention. 



If to HaMletlie Frames of Hives, 



C. A. HATCH. 



That every bee-man Is not proficient 

 in handling frames of even his own hives, 

 I was convinced by acting as judge at 

 our State Fair a few years since. A 

 premium was offered for best method of 

 handling bees ; and, as I now remember, 

 there were four contestants, some of 

 them veterans, and yet two of the four 

 broke out combs or cracked them badly 

 in handling, simply to find the queen. 



Another thing that convinces me that 

 all have not the knack of handling 

 Langstroth frames rapidly, is, that they 

 use metal corners, which entirely pre- 

 vents rapid manipulation in looking for 

 queens, examining brood, or any opera- 

 tion where single frames must be 

 handled. 



I had a talk with Prof. Cook once on 

 this subject, and I found he used the 

 same method as here described in in- 

 structing his bee-class, and so the method 

 has good indorsement. 



The right side of the hive is rather the 

 best position to operate from, for then 

 you can hold the smoker in the right 

 hand to throw smoke into the entrance, 

 and you can set it on the ground near by, 

 and it is easily reached by the proper 

 hand to use. 



After having subdued the bees, take 

 your screw-driver, or whatever tool is 

 used for loosening the frames, in the 

 right hand, handle up and thumb ^up, as 

 if it were a dagger and you were going 



to stab. Take the frame jiext to you. 

 Firsl loosen, by pushing the screw-driver 

 handle from you, while the point is be- 

 tween the frames ; grasp the fram(i at 

 the other end with the thumb and fore- 

 finger of left hand at same time, and 

 usually the frame will be loosened. Now 

 take the right-hand end in the same way ;. 

 and as you bring it up straight out of 

 the hive, move each thumb under tlu; 

 projection of the top-bar, so that its 

 whole weight will come on the ends of 

 the thujnbs, while the fingers serve to 

 steady it on the side from you. This 

 brings the frame in front of you so you 

 can examine one side. This we will call 

 the first position, and here is where most 

 mistakes are made. 



In order to get to the next position, 

 the bottom-bar ^is either brought toward 

 the operator, or it is turned away from 

 him until the opposite side of the frame 

 can be examined. In either case the 

 comb is not properly supported by the 

 frame ; and if new, and the weather 

 warm, it is liable to drop out by its own 

 weight. The position is also trying on 

 one's hands and fingers, which might not 

 be noticed on a few hives, but will tell in 

 a trying way where it is followed all day. 



There are usually but three parts of a 

 frame to be examined, viz. : two sides 

 and the bottom. Unless the colony is 

 unusually strong, no bees will be on the 

 end-bars ; so all we want is three posi- 

 tions of the frame to have it all gone 

 over. We have given the first, and now 

 to get the second. 



To examine the bottom, raise your 

 right hand, keeping the thumbs in the 



FIRST POSITION. 



same position, also lower left hand at 

 the same time, and bringing it toward 

 you also until one hand, the right, is 

 directly over the other, the frame stand- 

 ing on end. While raising your right 

 hand, allow the bottom of the frame to 

 swing toward you. This will give you 

 the second position to examine the 

 bottom. 



The third position is got by allowing 

 the frame to swing around to the left, 

 like a door, the top-bar serving in place 

 of hinges. After this side of the frame 

 has b(?en examined, you c^u let it swing 



