1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



be lost in one of those flights the cell will 

 provide another virgin, which will come on 

 in due course of time. It is better to have a 

 surplus of cells than to lose time. 



At our north yard we had 170 of these twin 

 mating-boxes, making in all 340 baby nuclei 

 in operation. On the average, a laying queen 

 could be taken from one of the compartments 

 every 9 days. When queen-rearing opera- 

 tions were at their height, Mr. Pritchard and 

 his boy helper could talce out from these 340 

 nuclei from 40 to 50 laying queens a day. 

 Sometimes they would take out 60, and 

 another day they would not take more than 

 15, making the average nearly 30 queens per 

 day for the entire season. 



In a small way, we would not advise any 

 one to rear queens from these babies; but a 

 large honey-producer can use them to very 

 good advantage. A one or two frame nu- 

 cleus of standard Langstroth dimensions is 

 a bad proportion. Two nuclei in the baby 

 hives, with a thousand bees to each, get 

 along very nicely. If the nucleus box is 

 smaller, and has only two or three hundred 

 bees, it will not maintain itself through the 

 season without putting in afresh lot of bees; 

 but when we put in a thousand at the very 

 beginning, it will maintain itself through the 

 season; and after the season is over, and the 

 queens taken, the bees may be shaken into 



a large wire-cloth box and form a few more 

 colonies. 



Taking it all in all, if the plan is properly 

 worked, we do not lose any bees, but sim- 



gly borrow somewhere about 85 pounds of 

 ees, and at the close of the season make 

 them back again into full colonies. Of course 

 this lot is of an entirely different gf neration. 

 The former lot have died out, and the new 

 lot takes its place through brood reared in 

 the baby nuclei. 



Our Mr. Bain prefers to work with five 

 frames to the twin nucleus, and not have 

 any division. In other words, he will have 

 a five-frame box of bees. When there are 

 two lots of bees to these little boxes, queens 

 must be taken away as fast as they lay, oth- 

 erwise the queens become discontented and 

 swarm out. 



In our next issue we will show you some 

 operations at our home yard in charge of 

 Mr. Bain. 



CALIFORNIA HONEY-PLANTS. 



The Loganberry. 



BY W. A. PRYAL. 



The loganberry has been suggested as a 

 honey-plant, and some time ago Mr. Morri- 

 son wished that some one in this locality 



FIG. 3.— SUPPLYING BABY NUCLEI WITH RIPE CELLS AND SUGAR SYRUP. 



