THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



85 



it appears. These cells are "stuck on a 

 stick." a larva and some loyal jellj' transfer- 

 red to each cell, the stick fastened into a 

 frame of comb, an opening being made in 

 the comb beneath the cells, and the frame 

 hung in a colony prepared for cell building. 

 The bees proceed at once to nurse the larv;¥ 

 and finish up the cells. When "ripe," the 

 cells are picked off the stick as easily as we 

 pull cherries from a braach. — Except in the 

 cooler weather of spring and fall, Mr. Doo- 

 little places the ripe cells ( when they are not 

 given immediately to nuclei) in a queen 

 nursery. Each cell is placed in a cage fur- 

 nished with food, the cages fitted into a 

 frame, and the frame hung in a colony of 

 bees. In the fall and spring a lamp nursery 

 is used, as a colony does not always furnish 

 the necessary heat. His objection to a lamp 

 nursery is that it requires such close watch- 

 ing to prevent the queens from killing one 

 another. We overcome this objection by 

 placing each cell, that is nearly ready to 

 hatch, in an apartment by itself, the same 

 as Mr. Doolittle does with the queen nurs- 

 ery. — One of the important features of Mr. 

 Doolitile's book is that of showing, in de- 

 tail, a system of management whereby ex- 

 cellent queens may be reared and fertilized 

 in a hive containing a laying queen ; and 

 that, too, with no interruption to the regu- 

 lar business of the hive. The principle is 

 not new, as it was discovered soon after the 

 introduction of the queen-excluding honey- 

 board. On page 518 of GlecDtinr/s for 188.5, 

 we find the following from Mr. Heddon. 



"I have also discovered that two queens 

 can l)e kept in the hive, one on each side of 

 the excluder. In fact, wherever I have used 

 the excluder, as soon as I put eggs and 

 young larva? above it ( where the queen could 

 not go), queen cells were started in quan- 

 tity. In several instances last season, young 

 queens were hatched. In two such, where 

 we had put the queen above ( to test the ex- 

 cluding power of the hoard) she remained 

 above, and a young queen was reared, 

 hatched, and fertilized, below. This point 

 is going to be of value to us in the future. 

 I think it is going to be one of the valuable 

 features of the honey-board." 



We believe, however, that Mr. Doolittle is 

 the first queen breeder who has taken advan- 

 tage of this principle in so extensive a man- 

 ner, or who has so thoroughly mastered the 

 details. He prepares his stick of embryo 

 queen cells, stocks them with larvte accom- 

 panied by a little royal jelly, fastens the 

 stick into a frame of comb, then hangs it in 

 the upper story of a hive having a queen- 



excluding honey-board between the two 

 stories ; the queen, of course, being in the 

 lower story. He has even had queen cells 

 built in a section box, by putting the pre- 

 pared cells in it, and putting it in a super 

 over a queen excluder. He has also had 

 queens fertilized and begin laying in a sec- 

 tion box so situated, but he does not recom- 

 mend it, as it spoils the section for first 

 class honey. By dividing off an upper story 

 into several apartments, using perforated 

 zinc for the divisions, and having an en- 

 trance for each apartment, a queen may be 

 allowed to hatch and become fertilized in 

 each apartment, while the old queen is at 

 the same time doing duty in the lower story, 

 there being a queen-excluding honey-board 

 between the upper and lower stories. — All 

 are cautioned not to shake the bees from a 

 comb having queen cells upon it. Drive 

 the bees off with smoke, or else brush them 

 off. — We think, liowever, that Mr. Doolittle 

 exercises more caution than is needed to 

 prevent the chilling of brood and unhatched 

 queens. It is possible that we are mistaken, 

 but we have never seen any brood chilled un- 

 less it had been exposed to a low tempera- 

 ture several hours. — Mr. Doolittle makes 

 what he calls "queen cell protectors." They 

 are small tubes of wire cloth, slightly cone- 

 shaped, and into one a queen cell can be 

 slipped uiitil only the point projects. The 

 open end of the tube is then stopped up, and 

 the cell, thus protected, is hung in the nu- 

 cleus from which a laying (lueen has just 

 been taken. Th'e cell is thus protected 

 against the attacks of the bees, (they will not 

 bite through the tough, hard end that 

 projects) and in from 24 to 48 houi-s there is 

 a hatched virgin queen in the nucleus. We 

 fail to see what has been gained. A nucleus 

 that has been queeuless that long will al- 

 most certainly accept a newly hatched queen. 

 Why not let the queen hatch in the nursery, 

 and then give it to the nucleus that has 

 been queenless 24 to 48 hours? — To be able to 

 introduce a virgin queen five or six days old 

 to a nucleus from which a lajiug queen has 

 just been taken, would be a great gain. Mr. 

 Doolittle says it can be accomplished by 

 taking away all the combs, and giving the 

 bees the queen in a cage from which they 

 can liberate her by burrowing through a 

 hole filled with " Good " candy. The combs 

 must not be returned until the queen begins 

 laying. There's too much labor about this ; 

 it would be more profitable to increase the 



