194 A Modern Bee- Farm 



In the mouths of several witnesses, the truth shall be estab- 

 lished ; but if any others desire to experiment in this direction, it 

 should be remembered that temperature is a very important item ; 

 and to keep the surrounding air up to about 90° and moist at 

 the same time, my apparatus is arranged over a heated cylinder, 

 itself standing on a small table with lamp under. It consists of a 

 hollow chamber with water all round, between two walls f-in. 

 apart. An inner chamber, open at the top, has water at the 

 bottom to induce the necessary moisture, and herein is fixed the 

 apparatus with the working parts projecting above. After 

 operating, the queen is placed below, so as not to be exposed to 

 a low temperature, for an hour or more. The cage holding her 

 rests on a projecting ledge. The drones, also, are first secured 

 and placed in a suitable cage near to the heated boiler. The 

 spermatozoa does not appear in sufficient quantity in drones 

 under 10 days old, and if the operator desires to explode the 

 drone organs, rather than obtain the matter by dissection, he will 

 find the warmth of very great benefit, as nearly every drone will 

 then be found suitable. 



While I am not an advocate of double-walled hives in winter, 

 nor such arrangement even for summer, yet where shade is pro- 

 vided by an independent outer case during hot weather, very 

 great progress is made by the bees. 



Mr. Cheshire has repeatedly pointed out that queens should 

 be reared artificially instead of using those raised under the 

 swarming impulse, if we wish to diminish the inclination to 

 swarm. But I go a step farther and breed from queens that 

 have not swarmed, and whose parent and grand-parent also had 

 neither of them swarmed. Thus only can a non-swarming race 

 be secured; and in this manner I have raised Carniolans, so 

 that the excessive swarming frequently attributed to them has 

 been quite unknown in my own apiaries. 



