704 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



through the small end of the protector. 

 Let loose with the right hand, and the 

 coil will spring back and cover the butt 

 end of the cell ; slip the tin cover in be- 

 tween the wire coil, just above the butt 

 end of the cell ; then you are ready to 

 put the cell in a hive. 



Then just spread the combs apart far 

 enough to put your band in ; now push 

 the spur of the protector in the comb 

 where you want it (see Fig. 1). I leave 

 them just below the top-bar. Now place 

 your frames, and it is done. The top of 

 the protector is in plain sight when the 

 hive is open. 



Care should be used to handle the cells 

 right side up, without a jar. It is a 

 satisfaction to look in a few days and 

 find the cells all whole, except where the 

 queen has helped herself out. The bees 



COILED WIRE QUEEN-CELL PROTECTOR, WITH 

 TIN SLIDE COVER. 



cannot destroy the cell before she 

 hatches, if properly put in ; neither will 

 it be destroyed by spreading the frames, 

 if you wish to do so. 

 Middleburg, N. Y. N. D. West. 



These spiral-spring queen-cell pro- 

 tectors have been in our Museum for 

 two years, and have been admired by all 

 who have seen them. They are excel- 

 lent for the purposes indicated by Mr. 

 West, in the above article, and will no 

 doubt very soon be considered indispen- 

 sable in every well-regulated apiary. Mr. 

 E. R. Root a'dds the following endorse- 

 ment to Mr. West's article in last month's 

 Gleanings : 



Mr. N. D. West is one of those bee- 

 keepers at whose place I stopped in my 

 bicycling tour. He owns about 400 col- 

 onies distributed in three apiaries. 



Although I made at his place a very 

 brief call of only some fifteen or twenty 

 minutes, I became convinced of the fact, 

 by looking around with his son (the 

 father being absent), that he is one of 

 the bee-keepers who ought to let their 

 light shine a little more. I met him for 

 the first time at the Albany convention, 

 and there he showed me a spiral-spring 

 cell-protector. 



Several bee-keepers who have tried 

 them, said that they were a good thing. 

 I have since been informed that Capt. 

 Hetherington considers them so good 

 that he has ordered 500, and that P. H. 

 Elwood also wants a lot of them, and 

 that both say they are ahead of anything 

 else they ever saw for a protector. Mr. 

 W. L. Tennant said he would rather do 

 without comb-foundation than do with- 

 out these protectors. This estimate is 

 perhaps a little strong. 



I am well aware that this looks like 

 free advertising ; but when so many 

 good bee-keepers assure me it is a good 

 thing, I am glad to give it this notice, 

 particularly as Mr. West charges a very 

 reasonable price for them. As he pays 

 for advertising space elsewhere, he can- 

 not be accused of taking advantage of 

 this notice free, 



We are all aware that the principle of 

 the protectors is old, and that Doolittle 

 has used a ivire-clotli cone for years, but 

 I believe the idea of using a spiral- 

 spring is new. The point of superiority 

 over wire-cloth cone-protectors is, that 

 the spirals adjust themselves to the size 

 of the cell, causing the tin-slide shown 

 in the engraving to press down on top of 

 the cell, so that the end, or point, of the 

 cell is squeezed against the apex of the 

 cone. With the wire-cloth protectors 

 I have known bees to push the cell up, 

 crawl inside of the cone, and gnaw into 

 the side of the cell ; but they could not 

 very well do it with Mr. West's spirals. 



The point he makes, that the re- 

 queening can be done during swarming 

 time> is a good one, as is also the point 

 that an extra-long cone can be attached 

 to shorter ones, the queen hatched out, 

 and be retained a day or two until a 

 place is found for her. The facility with 

 which these cones can be attached to 

 the combs is another point in their 

 favor. 



[The reader's attention is now directed 

 to the advertisement of these useful 

 articles on page 692. We have given 

 the above with the illustrations, in order 

 to make Mr. West's invention as plain 

 as possible to all. — Ed.] 



