204 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



one edge of the stick and the other row 

 ne.ir the other edge. The pins were 

 about an inch and a half apart and driven 

 in an upward, slanting direction — driven 

 clear tlirough up to their heads, so that 

 the points projected an inch or more like 

 so many spines. Each cell was stuck up- 

 on one of these pins, care being taken, of 

 course, that the pin should pass through 

 the comb attached to the base of the cell, 

 and thus do no injury to the queen. 

 These sticks, resembling so many niina- 

 ture iree-trunks, bearing such strange 

 fruit, were stood upright around the sides 

 of the nursery. To see if any queens had 

 hatched was the work of a moment. 

 Simply raise the cover of the nursery, 

 and give a glance at the cells. By exam- 

 ining the nursery in this manner four or 

 five times a daj', no queen ever had her 

 lihert}- long enough to do any great dam- 

 age. 



To examine all of the cells, at the close 

 of the day, by holding them up before a 

 lighted lamp, was a very slight task. 

 And right here comes in the point of hav- 

 ing lig A i colored cotttbs. Simply moving 

 one of tlie loaded sticks of cells slowly 

 along in front of a bright light, quickly 

 shows any queen that is "kicking." A 

 gross of cells could be examined in five 

 minutes. You see, friend Davis, some- 

 times things are "not what they seem." 

 If we had to pick up each cell singly, 

 and hold it up to the light, and, if, in 

 addition to this, the cell were of dark, 

 or darkish wax, it might require nearly 

 "48 hours a day." This plan worked all 

 right wilh my system, but it might not 

 with some other system. 



And now about the record cards: I 

 don't wish for anything any better than 

 the Root cards with the pin dials'. I don't 

 see how anything ca/i be any handier 

 You have simply to turn the pin dial to 

 the date, and the other pin to "cell," 

 "hatched," "laying," or "missing," as 

 tlie case may be, and it is done. I could 

 never tolerate a book, with its leaves 

 siuck together, or "stuck up," with hon- 

 ey and propolis. Pencil ditto, besides 



having to keep track of it. Besides this, 

 there is the (tme speiit in writing. By 

 the time that the record, short as it is, 

 couid be written, I could have the pins 

 turned and get to the next hive. I will 

 admit that it might be some satisfaction, 

 when a customer complained that a queen 

 was impurely mated, to be able to identify 

 the nucleus from which she came, and 

 know whether the customer was telling 

 the truth, but this happens so seldom, or, 

 at least, deception would be practiced in 

 so few cases, that I would prefer to oc- 

 casionally lose a queen in this way, rath- 

 er than be bothered with keeping a record. 

 Friend Davis speaks of having to bend 

 his back in the hot sun to read the record 

 and see if the queen was laying, or what- 

 ever it might be. The pins that I used 

 soon became rusted, and black, and I 

 could see, at a distance of ten feet, to 

 what part of the register the pin was turn- 

 ed, whether it was "cell," "hatched," 

 "laying," or "missing." I might not be 

 able to see the exact date without looking 

 closer, but, friend Davis, I'll have to tell 

 3'ou something else, in order to complete- 

 ly defend the card-record on this point. 

 Not only did I get rid of the back-bending 

 to read dates exactly, but I got rid of it 

 entiiely. Perhaps you will smile, but all 

 of my nucleus hives were up on stilts, 

 about four feet high. The covers were 

 hinged. There were two nuclei in each 

 hive, with a divison board for each, and a 

 piece of frame-stuff was nailed to each 

 side of the hive and projected out a few 

 inches, thus furnishing prongs upon 

 which to hang a frame when catching 

 and caging queens. I could step up to a 

 hive, turn back the cover, set my smoker, 

 little box of pieces of comb with unsealed 

 brood, or of queen cages, or what not, 

 on the turned back cover. It made a 

 shelf to hold whatever I wished to set 

 down. In fact, from beginning to end 

 I planed to have things handy; to save 

 time. M3' wife used to joke me on this 

 point, saying that she yet expected to see 

 me going around with a stool strapped to 

 my person all ready for me to sit down 



