April 27, 1905. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



311 



is much less than 2^2 inches in diameter, the bees will clofj 

 in it, instead of readily passing down through, when the 

 bees from a frame are shaken into the funnel. 



Having the funnel made, squeeze together at the top, 

 till you have an oval funnel about a foot wide and 22 inches 

 long, in diameter of the two ways across the top. This will 

 collect the bees in better, when the frame is shaken, than it 

 would if left in the ordinary funnel shape. 



Next bore a hole in the top of the "nucleus box" (that 

 is what I call this box), which will just let the small or 

 upright part of the funnel down into it, and fix a little door 

 of some kind to cover this hole when the bees are in and 

 the funnel is out. Next put in a section partly filled with 

 honey, left over from last season, putting the same near one 

 end of the box, and fasten it in place by means of a screw, 

 clamp or spring, so that the bees can have something to 

 live on while in the box. This completes all the box part. 



Now crowd the colonies you have in the spring, toward 

 full colonies, just as fast as possible, using any or all the 

 plans with which you are familiar, or those given in the 

 bee-books, for keeping them warm, stimulating, etc.; and as 

 soon as any one of them gets strong enough, prepare it for 

 queen-rearing, according to the plan given in " Scientific 

 Queen-Rearing," and continue to rear queens from this 

 colony, as you may require, for you can do this and not hin- 

 der this colony from contributing its share of bees for the 

 increase you wish, as well as the others, as the queen is 

 laying all the time in it. 



As soon as any of the colonies are full of bees, so they 

 •can spare bees from two frames, or from half a pound to a 

 pound, without injuring their future prospects, and you 

 have ripe queen-cells, take the cells out and put them into 

 the queen-nursery to hatch. Now, as soon as the queens 

 are one or two days old, go to any hive that can spare bees, 

 take out two frames, being sure that the old queen is not on 

 either of them, and shake the bees from them down through 

 the funnel into the box, doing this about 10 o'clock, a. m. 



Having the bees in the box, set them in some darkened 

 room, leaving them there till the next morning, when you 

 will get one of the young queens from the nursery, put her 

 in a cage having a stopper in it filled with queen-candy to 

 an extent that it will take the bees about half a day to eat 

 it out and liberate her. Now take the box of bees to some 

 place where it is light so you can see, and suddenly set it 

 down on the bench or floor, when all the bees will fall to 

 the bottom. Now quickly open the funnel hole, put in the 

 queen-cage, and secure it so it will stay about an inch or so 

 below the top of the box, by means of a wire shut in between 

 the little door and the top of the box, in closing the hole 

 again. 



After having things thus fixed, set the box away again 

 where it was before, leaving it to near sunset the following 

 day, when you will find the bees all contented with their 

 new queen, and hanging to the box like a swarm. At this 

 time go to any hive that can spare a frame having some 

 brood in it, say from '; to jz full, and take such a frame. 

 shaking the bees off', and replacing it with a frame of 

 empty comb. Put this frame in a hive placed where you 

 wish a colony to stand, together with two of the combs you 

 wish to stock with bees, each having enough honey in them 

 to insure the little colony from starvation, placing the one 

 having brood in it between the two having honey in them, 

 and all near one side of the hive. Now get the box of bees, 

 open the large door to the same, lowering it down into 

 the hive, when with a quick, jarring motion you will shake 

 all the bees on the bottom of the hive. At once set the box 

 outside and draw the combs along the rabbets of the hive 

 till they are next the side of the hive where you have shaken 

 the bees, put in a division-board to keep them on the three 

 combs, and keep all warm, when the bees, in running up, 

 will be immediately on the combs, and will fly out and work 

 just the same as a natural swarm of the same size would. 



If your work is so that you can not put them in the box 

 at 10 o'clock a. m., as given above, the little swarms can be 

 made at any time, but by doing the work as above you v.ill 

 get a greater proportion of young bees in the box than you 

 would did you do this work when the working force of be. s 

 was mostly in the hive. 



As you wish to make more little colonies, fix the box 

 back as it was when making this first one, and using the 

 whole ten, or more if necessary, in the same way, and pi' - 

 ceed with all the same as with the first. As the sea- i 

 advances you can make one such little colony from each i. ;1 

 colony twice a week, and take the same from yourcolo.iV 

 rearing queen-cells, too. 



Keep a good lookout for the combs, if the moth is liV:.- y 

 to trouble them, using those each time that may show .. y 



signs of moth-worms, and in this way you will not need to 

 sulphur any that were not treated that way last year, or 

 from which the bees may have died the past winter. 



When the honey harvest arrives, keep plenty of combs 

 on the strongest colonies, so that plenty of stores can be 

 stored in these for wintering, and, as the season advances, 

 use more bees each time in making the colonies; and when 

 fall arrives, if you do not have all the colonies you wish, 

 and you have plenty of sealed combs of honey for stores 

 left, take bees from several hives, thus forming a strong 

 colony at once, and hive them on these frames of sealed 

 stores. I have so formed colonies in September, many 

 times, and had them prove as good as any the next season. 



If you have some honey in the combs from which the 

 bees died, and you work to the best advantage in securing 

 honey in the combs when the flow is on, you can increase 

 seven or eight colonies in the spring to 100 in the fall, 

 easily, by this plan, without any feeding or without any 

 outlay in cash for queens, feed, or anything of the kind; 

 and if the season is a really good one you can secure some 

 surplus besides. 



With the nucleus-box plan, you can do almost anything 

 you wish by way of making colonies for any purpose you 

 may desire, and the beauty of it all is, that they will stay as 

 contented and work as nicely as any natural swarm. Of 

 course, it is understood that the empty combs are to be 

 added to these little colonies as soon as the queens get to 

 laying and they can cover more, till the hives are full, and 

 the combs are all used. 



Allow me to say that the main secret of a rapid increase, 

 is in not commencing operations till the colonies are strong, 

 nearly enough so to swarm, and then not robbing them of 

 bees till they are too weak to work to the best advantage; 

 using few bees for each colony the fore part of June, and 

 more and more as you go along, thus having all come up to 

 full colonies in August and September. 



I have had to be brief with this in order to get all in 

 one article, but I think I have been sufficiently explicit so 

 the questioner, and all others, may understand. If not, I 

 am open for more questions at any time. These nucleus- 

 boxes have become an absolute necessity with me in my 

 apiaries; for with them I can handle bees with about the 

 same ease I can potatoes in the bushel boxes. 



Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



©ur-:* Sister 

 BccKeepers 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Mareogo, 111. 



Bees Do Not Puncture Fruit 



=/ 



Those who read the letter of Miss Wheeler, on page 204, will 

 doubtless be interested in the outcome of the investigations instituted 

 by her to find whether bees were the culprits in the case of certain 

 injuries to apples. A letter frottf her dated March 1, is as follows : 



Dear Miss Wilson : — As promised, I send Prof. Stewart's reply, 

 also Prof. Parrott's comments on bees v». apples. Prof. Benton's 

 opinion, being practically the same, reads as follows : 



" We have no record that I am aware of regarding puncturing of 

 over-ripe apples by bees. My own observations do not lead me to 

 think that bees ever do this. When apples and other fruits are broken 

 open by any means whatever, honey-ljees go in to suck the juices, and 

 even when the skin is broken, take hold of the edges of the latter in 

 such a manner as to permit them to enter the cavity, then to continue 

 the sucking of the saccharine juices of the latter from the pulp." 



He refers to the Annual Report of the U. S. Department of Agri- 

 culture, 1885, pages 336-339, and (ileanings in Bee Culture Feb. 1, 1901, 

 pages 91-92, which shows where careful tests have been made both by 

 himself and others, and also the trial in court and decisions in fruit vs. 

 bees. All of which tend toward the conclusion that bees do not take 

 the initial part in puncturing fruit, but follow after insects that do the 

 mischief, and the bees reap the benefit. 



I must, of course, bow to the decision of men so thoroughly com- 

 petent to decide in this matter, and who have made a study of the 

 subject. And of course it is quite a relief if our bees are innocent of 

 injury to fruit. Frances E. Wheeler. 



(jlinton Co., N. Y. 



Prof. Stewart reported as follows : 



We have made a careful microscopic examination of the brown 

 spots on the Taliiian sweet apple which you gave me, but have been 

 unable to determine definitely what raased the spots. In a great ma- 



