9e (j)ee- 



eps 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



Devoted to the Interests of Honey Producers. 

 $L00 A YEAR. 

 W. z, HDTCHINSOK, Editor M Proprietor. 



VOL. XVII. FLINT, MICHIGAN, MARCH 15, 1904. NO. 3. 



Matlsn^^ 300 





BY W. H. LAWS. 



^^HE following wholesale method of 

 -^ mating' queens is entirely new, 

 and has not been described before, so 

 far as I know, except by Mr. C. B. 

 Bankston, a few months ago, in the 

 American Bee-Keeper. 



THE WONDERFUL ADVANTAGES OF THIS 

 METHOD. 



The advantages of tliis method are 

 that it allows the introduction of virgin 

 queens froin five to seven days old, it 

 avoids all trouble from fertile workers, 

 there is no loss from the absconding of 

 nucleus colonies, queens may be mated 

 in a cliosen locality free from objection- 

 able drones, and, most important of 

 all, the bees of one colony can care for 

 and allow the fertilization of as many 

 queens as can be reared by five colo- 

 nies ! All this may seem too g-ood to be 

 true, but, nevertheless, for the past 

 year, I have been practicing a method 

 possessing all of these advantages, 

 I am going to describe it for the benefit 

 of my brother bee-keepers. 



In the first place you must get out of 

 your head all idea of having or main- 



taining permanent nuclei. Instead, 

 there are used a great number of small 

 boxes, weighing, when empty, only a 

 few ounces each, and holding only one 

 small comb of honey to each box. 

 Equipped with as many of these boxes, 

 already prepared, as we have virgins 

 in our nurseries, we proceed to shake 

 all the bees from the combs of a popu- 

 lous, qiieenless colony (after making 

 the bees fill themselves with honey), 

 putting the beeless combs into an 

 empty hive, and setting it on tlie old 

 stand, to which enough bees will re- 

 turn to cai'e for the brood. 



NUCLEI WITH ONLY 100 BEES IN EACH. 



Now move the old hive, containing 

 the honey-laden, queenless bees, to 

 some shady, convenient spot, and, with 

 a small tin cup, dip from the cluster 

 a small wad of bees, say about the 

 size of an unhulled walnut, containing 

 about 100 to 150 bees, never more than 

 200, open one of these little boxes, and 

 pour the bees right into the box, upon 

 the comb of honey, close the box, snap 



