1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



349 



would be to take a pifce of plank to your 

 nearest planing-mill and have it turned on a 

 wood-lathe, so it will just make a good snug fit. 

 After the water is boiling in the kettle, the 

 steam will make the cover steam-tight, because 

 the wood will swell. Secure at your hardware 

 store two ^g or 1.3 inch gas-pipe elbows; a short 

 piece of pipe, say two or three inches long, 

 threaded at both ends: another piece of a 

 length that will reach from your stove to the 

 barrel, and still another piece that will reach 

 from the top of the barrel to within six or eight 

 inches of the bottom of the same. Bore a hole 

 through the top of the wooden cover of the 

 kettle, a little smaller than the size of the pipe. 

 Screw in the first-mentioned piece of pipe; 

 afterward, as tight as you can do it with your 

 hands, one of the elbows; and so on extend the 



Eipe on into the barrel. Next bore an inch 

 ole to be stopped with a wooden plug, so that 

 the kettle can be replenished from time to time. 

 So far, at much less expense, you will have a 

 boiler that is in every way as good as friend 

 Nellis', without any solder, and without any 

 boring through the sides of the kettle; and 

 very few bee-keepers will have facilities for 

 boring through cast-iron. With such a boiler 

 it will not matter if the kettle does boil dry. for 

 every housewife knows that an ordinary iron 

 kettle will stand such treatment occasionally. 



Now, to get rid of the fumes of the acid, and 

 the slopping and sputtering of the wax that 

 may occur, we would extend the pipe connec- 

 tion so as to reach from the stove out of the 

 window, into a barrel just outside. This will 

 allow all acid fumes to rise in the air. right 

 where they will do no harm to the occupants of 

 the house. Having done this you are ready to 

 proceed as friend Nellis describes above. 



To make sure that this plan would work, we 

 had our "small brother "test the matter out- 

 doors, and we find that every thing is all right. 

 Now, we can furnish the kettle at a nominal 

 sum; but of course it will be cheaper for the 

 most of you to purchase your own at your own 

 hardware store, if you do not already have one. 

 It is possible that some of our readers who are 

 not of a mechanical turn of mind would not 

 care to make the wood cover, even if they 

 could. To accommodate such we will furnish 

 an iron kettle holding 15 quarts, wood cover 

 fitted in tight, with the pipe connections and all 

 complete, for 83.00. This will make it possible 

 for every one to make his own steam There 

 is no satisfactory way of rendering wax by the 

 acid without steam.] 



STARTING NUCLEI. 



FULL, DIRECTIOXS ON HOW TO DO IT, BY DR. C. C. 

 MILLER. 



A correspondent asks me to tell in Gleanings 

 how I form nuclei, especially (if I understand 

 him correctly) when full colonies are divided up 

 after taking from one apiary to another. The 

 principal difficulty in establishing a nucleus is 

 to get the bees to stay put. It is a very simple 

 thing to take two or more combs with adhering 

 bees and put them into an empty hive; but the 

 difficulty is, to get them to stay there. Except 

 the youngest bees, nearly all are likely, under 

 ordinary circumstances, to conclude that the 

 old home was better, and accordingly to return 

 to it. But by means of an out-apiary, that dif- 

 ficulty is entirely overcome. Or, two bee-keep- 

 ers living two miles or more apart could ex- 

 change colonies, and each take advantage of 

 the moving. 



I might answer the question in very few 

 words by saying that a colony can be taken to 



an out-apiary, and, without any ceremony 

 whatever, the frames of brood can be taken 

 out, each of^them put in a'separate empty hive, 

 allowing an equal number of bees to each, and 

 there you are. Tiie bees can't desert and go 

 back to their old home, for they can't find it. 



But no doubt the question meant to include 

 more particulars, w hich I gladly give. When 

 practicing thejplan under consideration, I gen- 

 erally, if not always, raised a queen in each 

 nucleus, and then the nucleus was developed 

 into a full colony. At the time bees began to 

 think about swarming, I selected one or more 

 colonies to be divided, and from the selected col- 

 ony removed the queen. Possibly I added to it 

 brood from other colonies, exchanging for this 

 brood-combs containing no brood. If the re- 

 moved queen'.was considered a proper one to 

 bi'eed from, the bees, upon her removal, would 

 proceed to raise queen cells, or such cells were 

 obtained in some way. A day or two before 

 there was any danger^of the ceils hatching, the 

 combs were looked over; and the probability 

 was that the cells werejuot^very evenly distrib- 

 uted, some combs having several cells and some 

 having none. Then I evened up matters and 

 put a ceil on each frame of brood which had 

 none. This was done at least 12 hours before 

 the colony was to be removed to the other apia- 

 ry, so that the bees would have time to do any 

 patching and mending that was needed. The 

 hive was now filled with brood-combs, each of 

 which contained brood and a queen-cell. 



But this would allow only one comb of brood 

 with its adhering bees for a nucleus, and such 

 a nucleus would be too weak for the best work. 

 So. about two days before the time of removal, 

 another colony was made^queenless, to betaken 

 along to the out-apiary. Arrived at the out- 

 apiary, eight hives were placed in proper places 

 to receive the nuclei. In each of the hives a 

 frame with adhering bees was put from the 

 hive containing the queen-cells, and also from 

 the other hive a frame with adhering bees. If 

 I had them to spare, a' frame or two of honey 

 was given to each of the nuclei, but they would 

 get along without this, for the honey harvest 

 was now on, and in each nucleus there was a 

 fair proportion of field-bees. Indeed, I don't 

 know of any other way in which you can be so 

 sure of having in each nucleus a full assortment 

 of bees of all ages. 



The nuclei were now formed,^and in the ma- 

 jority of cases I could count on finding the 

 young queen laying two weeks later. Of course, 

 as in all cases, some of the queens would fail to 

 materialize; but the proportion was no greater, 

 if as tgreat. as by other methods. Some years 

 ago, by following the plan outlined, I increased 

 13 colonies to 81, and took from them 1200 lbs. of 

 honey. But it was an exceptionally good year, 

 a'buckwheat year at that, and] the honey was 

 nearly all buckwheat extracted. But the 81 

 colonies were all strong and in good condition. 

 They were in ten-frame hives, and only one, 

 two, or three frames were taken from a hive to 

 be extracted at a time, always leaving each hive 

 well stocked for winter should the harvest close 

 at any time. 



I would lay stress on the importance of not 

 making nuclei too weak. I don't believe there 

 is any economy in weak nuclei. I don't think 

 they raise so good queens. Besides, they are so 

 slow building up, that, although you may at 

 the start make a greater number of nuclei from 

 aigiven number of colonies, you will gain by 

 having a smaller number at the start, and then 

 make new ones later in the season from those 

 formed earlier. Another reason for thisj is, 

 that, if you start by making your nuclei too 

 weak, the season may close unexpectedly early, 

 and ail will be left in bad shape for winter; but 



