1901 



GIvEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



633 



queen ; and sometimes, even when they stay, 

 the queen disappears in a few days. 



One swallow does not make a summer, nor 

 does success with an occasional bunch of 

 these small nuclei, when every thing is favor- 

 able, and the queen and bees happen to re- 

 frain from " visiting," warrant the conclusion 

 that such nuclei are both practical and prof- 

 itable. 



I'll warrant the opinion that there is not 

 one in four of the queen-breeders of to-day 

 who has not tried and discarded some such 

 plan of running little nuclei ; but there are 

 few who will rush into print to tell of the 

 things they have tried and found unworkable. 

 We all know that a queen is very reluctant to 

 lay in a single comb ; and many young queens 

 will swarm out after becoming fertilized, and 

 arriving at the point of laying, rather than 

 begin in a frame that is not protected by 

 combs on each side of it ; and this is especial- 

 ly true of single combs that are smaller than 

 half the size of a Langstroth frame. 



His directions for collating a large number 

 of queens in one hive (magazine hives, page 

 506), will work for only a few weeks, and 

 then the bees will favor one of the queens, 

 and neglect or even 

 destroy all the rest. 

 That is my experi- 

 ence, at all events. 



Daytona, Fla. 



[It is possible and 

 even probable that 

 most people will fail 

 in getting queens 

 fertilized in nuclei 

 as small as Swarth- 

 more describes, and 

 especially so many of 

 them so closely put 

 together ; but there 

 are several who have 

 made a success in 

 having queens fertil- 

 ized in small three- 

 comb nuclei of no 

 larger size than three 

 4:}4 sections. 



Herman Rauchfuss, 

 of Colorado, told me, 

 when I called on him 

 recently, that he had 

 succeeded in having 

 6 out of 8 queens fer- 

 tilized in these little 

 three - comb boxes. 

 He divided off an or- 

 dinary super into 8 

 compartments, each 

 having three little 

 combs of the size of 

 a section honey-box. 

 There are two en- 

 trances on each side, 

 and two on each end. 

 In these little nuclei 

 he not only had 

 queens fertilized, but 

 confined them and 



kept them there by the use of perforated 

 metal after they had begun laying eggs. 

 Two years ago, when I visited Mr. Rauchfuss 

 I took a photo of him, his little girl, and the 

 queen-mating super, one of which he is hold- 

 ing in his hand. Its general mode of con- 

 struction will be apparent from the engrav- 

 ing. 



Mr. E. F. Atwater, of Meridian, Idaho, was 

 using something quite like this when I called 

 on him recently, and he was making a suc- 

 cess of it ; and in a letter received from one of 

 the best queen-breeders in the country, Mr. 

 W. H. Pridgen, I found he has also used 

 something similar and made it work ; and 

 you yourself, I believe, have accomplished it, 

 but you do not consider it a reliable plan. 

 But Swarthmore has gone one step further ; 

 and instead of having three little nucleus 

 frames he has only one, and that a little larg- 

 er size. If it is possible to make the others a 

 success, perliapi, with the right management 

 and the requisite amount of skill, one could 

 make the other. This is a matter of consid- 

 erable importance ; and if bees sufficient to 

 cover one or two Langstroth frames, and 

 equivalent brood, can be made to have six or 



MR. HERMAN RAUCHFUSS SHOWING HIS QUEEN-MATING SUPER. 



