“ NOVICE’S ” GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 
CO 
NOVICE’S 
^Icititiugs in l^cc ^nlfiuc. 
A. I. ROOT & CO., 
E I) l T O K S A X I) P R () l» R I E T O.R S . 
Published Monthly, at Medina, Ohio. 
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Any one tending vn 5 Subtcriberscan retain 75c. for 
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I PRINTED AT MEDINA COUNTY GAZETTE OFFICE. I 
.Medina, Sept, 1 . 1373. 
■TAI.1AX tUKDXS roll OX I'. OOI.- 
1.AR. 
®EBHAW Rims apology should be 
— ■: made before submitting our plans of 
queen rearing to many who have bad so 
much more experience in that branch of 
bee culture, yet hoping we may have 
struck on some few ideas of value some- 
where, we as usual fry to help whether we 
do or not. 
In the first place, kind reader, we found 
our hives about the middle of July run- 
ning over with bees, almost, and a very 
poor prospect of any honey to be gather- 
ed during the balance of the season. In 
some of these the bees actually hung all 
day on the outside of the hives and we, 
Yankee like, kept reflecting whether these 
bees could not .just, as well earn some- 
thing, for, without a doubt, should we re- 
move their hive and give them a new one 
with a small piece of choice brood, they 
would rear queens at once. As this would 
necessitate making a new colony and the 
attendant, expense of extrastores, we dis- 
liked the plan, for, if we preferred winter- 
ing only our present number, we should 
have before us the tedious process of 
uniting when through. We finally 
thought of using the surplus bees to rear 
queens in the upper story and have suc- 
ceeded so well in getting queen cells 
started thus, that we have been wonder- 
ing if the loafing bees tire really not 
superior for this purpose. 
Due colony produced J m/i/six fine 
queen cells in the upper story immediate- 
ly, on having all eomtnnniealion cut oil’ 
from below; and we have, as a general 
thing, had more and finer cells built above 
than in the main brood uppaMmeut. As 
our quilts did not make a ‘sure thing be- 
tween the two stories, we also interposed 
a thick sheet of Manilla paper, making 
the entrance immediately over the main 
one, on the roof of our old style I.angs- 
trotli hives, and we put on an extra door 
step on the upper story of the simplicity 
hives. When the two colonies are again 
united the scent being the same we have 
nothing to do but to close the upper en- 
rance and shake the bees below. As we 
have quite a number of hives that have 
not worked above, we have divided these 
by a sheet of tin, boards being two thick 
and clumsy in our opinion ; we give the 
old queen all the hive except three frames. 
,, these being sufficient for queen rearing, 
! and in some enses we have given the 
! nucleus the old entrance, obliging the 
main colony to use a new entrance in the 
I back end, for we wish to afford the young 
queen every facility for returning without 
any mistake from her excursion. As 
sheets of tin are somewhat expensive we 
have employed old tin ware to good ad- 
vantage; for instance an old wash boiler 
flattened out and cut up in pieces of the 
proper size, with the wire left on the lop 
edge for the quilt to rest on, answers 
every purpose. Wire cloth will not an- 
swer or at least not with certainty, for no 
queen cells will be built so long as com- 
munication can be kept up between the 
two colonies. The crevices at the en- 
trance and on the rabbit where the frames 
rest may be closed with wool or small 
rolls of woolen cloth. If we have one 
choice queen to rear from, we should give 
them, after they are fairly started, only 
brood from this queen, ami by' cutting the 
the comb in small strips this brood may- 
be made to go a great ways, thus having 
all queen cells started, valuable ones, and 
much progress will be made on queen 
cells while waiting for an inserted 
cell to hatch. If the cell should be des- 
troyed they, of course, are rearing good 
ones in its place. Now comes an im- 
portant item. Although we may insert a 
dozen eelis and have them all hatch 
properly, the next dozen may he nearly 
nil torn down, and to prevent this we 
have been using the queen cages ad- 
vertised last month, which are made as 
follows: In blocks two and three-fourth 
inches square, cut from boards dressed 
to i inch in thickness, bore holes two and 
s inches across; these, we bore with an 
expansion center bit made very sharp: if 
the blocks split badly bore the holes first 
and saw them out afterward On one 
side with four tacks fasten a piece of tin- 
ned wire cloth about sixteen meshes to 
, the inch; on the other, make a door by 
bending a square of wire cloth over a 
square frame of rather stout, wire; hinge 
tile door by driving staples made of com 
moil brass pins over the Vice on one side 
of the door. A third pin driven in the 
wood at an opposite corner and bent at 
right angles makes a sort ol button to 
fasten the door securely. 
Now then, with a populous colony, in 
warm weather, we have only to put our 
queen cell In this cage amt lay the whole 
on top of the frames, for the heat from 
the bees passes through the light wire 
cloth, and when covered by the quilt it is 
kept abuiidantly warm. With weaker 
colonies we cut out a place in the comb, 
and this comb, containing a queen cage, 
can always be carried to any r hive in 
which it may r be needed. As the cage 
