162 ADVANCED BEE CULTURE. 



* 



in a normal condition, and ready to mate with a queen should one 

 appear. 



Suppose we could make a cage two miles wide, and half a mile 

 high. Is there any doubt that a queen would be mated inside such 

 a tent ? Suppose it were reduced to one mile in width, and one- 

 fourth of a mile high. Wouldn't it be a success ? Let us go still 

 farther, and have it half a mile wide and 80 rods in height. Isn't it 

 reasonable to suppose that it would still be a success ? The ques- 

 tion then is: How small can it be and still be a success ? My opin- 

 ion is that the size is not so very material as it is to get the drones to 

 fly and feel at home. One large enough for that is, in my opinion, 

 large enough. 



There is still one more point: Not all drones, at all ages, are 

 capable of fertilizing a queen. Many experimenters have failed 

 from not understanding this point. They have put nuclei, with 

 young queens, into a tent, then caught drones at hap hazard and put 

 them into the tent. Some of them may have been youngsters, just 

 out of their cradles, so to speak. Others may have been old grey 

 beards. All of them would certainlj^ have been frightened out of 

 their wits to have been thus caught and shut up in a tent away from 

 their home. I think Mr. Davitte has found the key that will unlock 

 the problem, viz., that of getting drones from a normal colony, that 

 is working undisturbed in the open air, to fly iinzvorricd in an en- 

 closure. 



Although this account of Mr. Davitte's success was published 

 some three or four years ago, I believe there has been nothing like 

 it attempted since. The i|ueen breeder who will build such a tent, 

 and succeed with it as Mr. Davitte says that he succeeded, will cer- 

 tainly have one oi the biggest advertisements that could possibly be 

 secured. This is a matter that I should be glad to see some of the 

 experiment stations take up. 



Right in this line, it might be mentioned that Mr. L. A. Aspin- 

 wall, of Jackson, Michigan, reports success in clipping about /S of 

 an inch from the ends of the wings of a queen. While this does not 

 prevent her flying, it so weakens her flight that she is not likely to 

 go far from the apiary before being overtaken by an admirer. If 

 only drones of a desirable character are allowed to fly in the home- 

 yard, the chances are that the majority of queens will be well-mated. 

 Mr. John M. Rankin, when at the Michigan Agricultural College, 

 tried this same experiment, but, with him, only a small per cent, of 

 the queens thus clipped ever became fertile. Perhaps he clipped 

 them too much. 



