546 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Aug. 3, 190S 



nucleus, with the added advantage that the queens can be 

 found instantly. 



I hold in my hand here one of Mr. Pratt's "baby" nucleus- 

 boxes. As you will see. it is a miniature hive made of o.uar- 

 ter-inch stuff with a small flight-hole in front. This has a tin 

 slide on the outside so that the hole can be closed, and a 



perforated zinc slide on the inside. This latter can be re- 

 volved around, holding the queen after she is mated. The 

 little frames, as you will note, are secured to the cover, hav- 

 ing no ears nor projections. They are not made permanently 

 fast, but are secured by a staple bent at right angles, folded 

 over against the top-bar. When these little frames are filled 

 with comb and bees, the cover is turned bottom up, leaving 

 the frames standing upright. If the queens or the eggs are 

 not discovered on the two outside surf.?.ces 'of the combs, a 

 sliding twist will remove one of the frames so that its inside 

 surface, as well as the inside surface of the other comb, can 

 be readily seen. If the queen is laying, the fact can be noted 

 at a glance. If she is to be caged and sent out through the 

 mails she can be located without hunting. We have gone so 

 far as to take every bee in the box and put it in the mailing- 

 cage with the queen. In cases of this kind we supply the 

 box with fresh bees in the manner I shall presently explain. 



To get these little "baby" frames filled with comb, we 

 make them of just the right size so that six of them will fit 

 in a standard Langstroth frame, a good deal as eight sections 

 used to be inserted in the old-style wide-frame. Each of 

 these little frames is supplied with foundation, and the whole 

 si.x in one frame is set down in the center of a strong colony. 

 In a few hours the comb will be drawn out, and will contain 

 some honey if honey is coming in, as well as, possibly, a few 

 eggs. 



We have a good many of these frames, each containing 

 six small frames, scattered through the yard so that we can 

 get freshly sealed combs whenever we need them for the 

 "babies," for that is what we call these miniature nuclei. 



Now, then, how do we supply these little boxes v,'ith 

 bees? We prepare a lot of them, say a dozen or so, uith 

 combs all ready for the bees. We next go to some •^<««\ 



colony and shake all the bees into a box, having previously 

 smoked them in order to make them quiet, and to get them 

 to gorge themselves with honey. This box of combless bees, 

 after giving the brood to other colonies, is then carried to a 

 shady place where we have the prepared miniature nuclei. 

 The box of bees before scooping up is given a bump in order 



to get them into a heap. The cover is removed, and with a 

 tea-cup we scoop up one or two hundred bees and dump the 

 teacupful into one of the baby bo.xes, when the cover v.'ith 

 its combs is set down in place, thus confining them. In a like 

 manner the other babies are supplied. Of course, the en- 

 trances are kept closed. Having supplied all the bees, we 



can now give each through the hole in the cover a queen-cell 

 built on one of these wooden cell-cups ; or in 24 hours after 

 the bees have come to know their utter queenlessness we 

 may run in a young virgin. 



We can now distribute these baby bo.xes around in dif- 

 ferent parts of the yard ; but it is usually advisable to carry 



HOW PRATT FEEDS SYRUP TO THE BABT NUCLBI. 



them to an outyard or to some isolated locality where there 

 may be one or two hives with a large pri dominance of se- 

 lected drones. The queens are allowed to fly at this yard and 

 become mated, when they are brought home and kept for 

 supplying queenlcss colonies or to fill any orders that one 

 may have ; for these little boxes of bees will hold their 

 queens for a considerable length of time. It may be ncces- 



