94 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



some full colony, according to direc- 

 tions given on another page in connec- 

 tion with the description of the nursery. 

 A much better way for the novice to 

 dispose of queen-cells would be to super- 

 sede old queens and at once insert the 

 queen-cells. If this seems too risky, the 

 method of inserting queen-cells taken 

 from the American Stockman can be 

 used to good advantage. That is, de- 

 queen the hive a few days before the 

 cells are inserted. This method of 

 dequeening would do away with the 

 necessity of nucleus colonies in which 

 one would be obliged to preserve young 

 queens until fertilized. 



Position of nucleus colonies in the apiary. 

 Occasionally a visitor to the Bay 

 State apiary will look around awhile and 

 then remark "Why don't you place those 

 little hives in rows so they will look bet- 

 ter? I shouldn't think a queen could 

 ever find her way back to the hive where 

 she belongs, etc." Well, my friend, the 

 bees have no trouble in finding their 

 home, is the only reply I need make. I 

 usually go some farther and explain the 

 reason why I place the nucleus hives 

 in such seemingly careless positions. If 

 the hives are set on a line and all face 

 the same direction, few, if any of the 

 queens would find their home on return- 

 ing from the mating trip. For this rea- 

 son we purposely place the fertilizing 

 hives in a zigzag position. 



Position of full colonies in the apiary. How 

 bees mark the location of their homes. 



With full colonies there is less dan- 

 ger of the loss of queens when the 

 hives are placed near each other and 

 are all painted one color. While there 

 are several queens to be fertilized in a 

 nucleus colony each year, there is but 

 one to be mated from the full colony. 

 Then again, there is always less danger 

 of queens being lost from a full col- 

 ony than there is from a nucleus colony 

 at mating time. Hence the reason for 

 the extra care with the nucleus colony. 



While many paint the fronts of their 

 hives in different colors to aid the queen 



and bees in locating their home, I hard- 

 ly think such is necessary from the fact 

 that bees do not seem to know one col- 

 or from another. I have found that a 

 slight change in the position of the hive 

 from the one nearest it, is all that is 

 necessary, and much better than paint. 

 For instance : let one hive face south, 

 the next one southeast and the next 

 south again. Another hive may have a 

 small stone near the entrance, or any 

 other object by which the bees can 

 mark the location. Bees seem to be 

 guided in locating their home more by 

 the position of the hive and surround- 

 ings than by colors. 



How bees act when leaving the hive the 

 first time. 



When bees are let out of the hive after 

 being placed in a new position they al- 

 ways "mark" the location by flying about 

 the entrance a few moments. They do 

 not come out of the hive and start direct- 

 ly for the fields, but as soon as they are 

 outside the hive they at once discover 

 that something is wrong. As each bee 

 gets on its wings it turns head towards 

 the hive, and after a few seconds spent 

 in observation, it will move a little far- 

 ther away and gradually enlarge the cir- 

 cle, all the time rising h'gher in the 

 air, and finally it will take a "bee line" 

 in search of water, pollen, propolis or 

 honey, as the needs of the colony seem 

 to demand ; after the bees have been to 

 and from the fields once or twice, they 

 do not stop to locate their home but at 

 once go to the fields in searcli of forage. 

 When the bees leave the fields they go 

 high in the air, and after circling around 

 several times go directly to their home. 



How a queen marks the location of her 

 home when she leaves it for the mating trip . 



One engaged extensively in rearing 

 queens will in the course of the season 

 see hundreds of young queens leave the 

 hive to meet a drone. Queens mark 

 the location the same as the worker 

 bee. When the queen returns to the 

 hive she is more careful about enter- 

 ing the right hive than the worker 



