GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



the same way, some being transferred by 

 the left middle leg to the left corbicula, and 

 others by the right middle leg to the right 

 corbicula. It is possible— though the mo- 

 tion was too quick for me to see it — that the 

 fragments were caught by the middle leg on 

 the angle between the tibia and metatarsus, 

 and held by the spur on the tibia. 



Thus the bee loads its corbicula with pol- 

 len in one way, and with propolis in another 

 way, the former substance being combed in- 

 to a receiver below the corbicula froui the 

 metatarsus of the opposite hind leg, and 

 squeezed out on to the corbicula by the 

 straightening of the leg, and the latter be- 

 ing plastered direct on to the corbicula by 

 the middle leg of the same side. It is pos- 

 sible that the latter process is sometimes 

 used in the case of pollen, and I have seen 

 honeybees patting the pollen that is on the 

 corbicula with the metatarsus of the middle 

 leg. This patting is evidently an essential 

 part of the process of loading the pollen on 

 the corbicula; for when I load a dead bum- 

 ble-bee's corbicula artificially I find that the 

 pollen stands out and needs to be patted 

 down in order to make it lie on the corbicu- 

 la as it does in nature. 



HofTer, in Die Hummeln Steiermarks, \o\. 

 I., p. 37, states that the bumble-bee brushes 

 the pollen out of the body hairs with the 

 two first pairs of feet into the mouth, and 

 there chews and kneads it with honey and 

 saliva into a sticky paste which is conveyed 

 back again with the feet, and pressed with 

 the help of the middle legs, on to the corbic- 

 ula of the hind legs; and Crawshaw has late- 

 ly drawn attention to the fact (which may 

 be easily verified by watching bees working 

 on the many flowers that are now out) that 

 the honeybee often gathers pollen direct 

 from the anthers with the mandibles, which 

 are used to knead it. This kneading of the 

 pollen in the mouth explains the source of 

 the honey in the pollen, and makes it un- 

 necessary to assume that the legs are mois- 

 tened with honey to make the pollen adhere 

 to them. Nevertheless, from observations 

 I have made I believe that the legs are mois- 

 tened in some flowers. 



Ripjjlecourt, England. 



FORMING NUCLEI OVER STRONG COLONIES 

 FOR OUEEN-REARING 



BY ISAAC F. TILLINGHAST 



By the modern methods of commercial 

 queen-rearing, fully described in the books 

 on the subject, it is comparatively easy to 

 produce a large number of first-class virgin 

 queens from selected mothers; but it is 

 more of a trick to carry them forward past 

 the period of impregnation and into fully 

 developed motherhood. To accomplish this 

 in ((uantities greater than is required for 

 home use, some form of nuclei is required. 



The system of baby mating- boxes in gen- 

 eral use by many breeders has never ap- 



pealed strongly to me, mainly on account 

 of the expense and trouble required in get- 

 ting them started. I much prefer confining 

 myself to the use of standard-size frames 

 which may at any time be transferred to 

 and from my full colonies; and then when 

 through queen-rearing for the season, may 

 either be built up to a size suitable for safe 

 wintering or united and reduced in num- 

 ber as circumstances seem to require. 



The best way of making these nuclei that 

 I have ever tried is, first, to tier up as when 

 planning for extracting or for increase by 

 the Alexander plan. If the colony con- 

 tains a queen which one wishes to breed 

 from, and cells are desired, a complete cut- 

 off of wire cloth or paper is put on the 

 queen-excluder, and left from 24 to 48 hours, 

 when it may be removed. The advantage 

 of a sheet of paper is that the bees them- 

 selves will attend to the removal by eating 

 or tearing it away so that they may pass 

 readily from one compartment to the other; 

 but in all cases the queen-excluder must re- 

 main in order to confine the old queen be- 

 low; and if cells are once started they will 

 not be abandoned on account of the removal 

 of the coinplete barrier. 



The colony is then left until the tenth 

 day from the time of division or tiering, 

 when the upper portion is divided into as 

 many two or three frame nuclei as desired, 

 giving each a cell ready to hatch, replacing 

 the wire-cloth cutoff, and after three or four 

 days' confinement giving each an independ- 

 ent entrance and exit, which is usually a 

 J4.-inch hole placed on different sides. 

 These bodies should be carefully prepared 

 with tight division-boards, thus forming 

 separate compartments. Each should con- 

 tain two frames of brood and one frame of 

 honey. At any time after ten days, when 

 all the brood is sealed, any or all of these 

 nuclei may be transferred each to a full- 

 sized hive body and removed to a new 

 stand, where, by feeding and confining 

 them for a few days, nearly all will remain, 

 and there will be no loss of brood by chill- 

 ing or lack of nursing, which is sure to take 

 place where removal of unsealed brood is 

 made direct from the parent hive. 



Our preference, however, is to leave them 

 on the parent hive, or remove a portion of 

 them to the tops of other strong colonies 

 where they may be benefited by the warmth 

 arising from the bees below. We have but 

 little difficulty in securing fertilization of 

 queens in this way, but find that the wire 

 cloth as well as queen-excluder is necessary 

 in order to make a complete separation. 



Factoryville, Pa. 



Proof of the Value of a Bait Section 



I put one full-corab section with perhaps a dozen 

 cells of honey in the center of the super late in the 

 season. When I took that super off, that bait sec- 

 tion was filled full and capped white, a fancy filled 

 section, and scarcely another section in that super 

 had been touched. 



Llncolnville, Me. Fred Brkwstek. 



