Nov. 29, 1906 



American liee Journal 



read "A B C of Bee-Culture" on "Nu- 

 cleus." Seeker. 



Answer. — It's an unthankful task to 

 throw cold water upon a project over 

 which some one has studied until en- 

 thusiastic over it; but I confess I 

 don't feel very hopeful as to the re- 

 sult of your experiment. At the same 

 time I anything about it 



for sure, and shall be glad to sit at 

 your feet to learn about it after you 

 have made the trial. I'm not sure 

 that I know enough to say just what 

 you should do and not do; but I sup- 

 pose the main things to be done are to 

 keep the hive warm, have an abun- 

 dance of stores always on hand, and 

 feed thin feed at some little distance 

 from the hive when the weather al- 

 lows, so as to make it appear to the 

 bees as much like a natural flow as 

 possible. The chief thing to avoid is 

 the stirring up of the bees when they 

 would be chilled by going out; and 

 there will be little danger of this if 

 you do not feed in the hive. 



The proof of the pudding is the eat- 

 ing, and if you got excellent results by 

 a certain plan of dividing a colony, it 

 may be safe for you to follow the 

 same course again. All the same, I 

 still think that a nucleus is not only 

 "not the proper place in which to 

 have a queen-cell started," but that it 

 is so poor a place that I wouldn't take 

 queens so reared as a gift. It is not 

 entirely clear as to what the strength 

 of your colonies were after the divi- 

 sion, and it may be that they were 

 quite strong enough to do good work; 

 but if so it is doubtful that either part 

 would be weak enough to be called 

 a nucleus. 



Just exactly what is the dividing 

 line between a nucleus and a weak 

 colony it may not be easy to say. 

 When a 3-frame nucleus is spoken of. 

 I think it generally means 2 frames 

 fairly filled with brood with sufficient 

 bees to cover the brood, and a third 

 frame containing honey. Perhaps it 

 would be right to say that anything 

 beyond this would be called a colony. 

 But I don't know that the line is ex- 

 actly drawn, any more than the line 

 is exactly drawn between a boy and a 

 man. 



Your question why a nucleus isn't a 

 proper place in which to start queen- 

 cells is not as easily answered as the 

 question why I think it isn't a fit 

 place. I think it isn't a fit place be- 

 muse others think so, and more es- 

 pecially because in the callow days of 

 my bee-keeping I tried it and reared 

 some very poor queens from nuclei. In 

 one case I used a very weak nucleus. 

 A queen was reared that looked all 

 right so far as I could judge. She 

 laid one egg — in a queen-cell — and 

 then she gave up business. As to the 

 reason why a nucleus is not a good 

 place to start queen-cells, one reason 

 may be that they may not always be 

 kept as warm as in a larger body of 

 bees; and another that they may not 

 always be fed as well. 



Yes, on the page which you quote, 

 Dadant's Langstroth very plainly im- 

 plies that, queen-cells are not only to 

 he reared but started in comparative- 



ly weak colonies. But you will note 

 that they are comparatively weak 

 "either because their queens are old, 

 or because they are not prolific," and 

 these colonies are chosen not because 

 they are weaker than others, but be- 

 cause they have queens so poor that 

 tin i deserve death, and the weakness 

 of the colony is proof of the poorness 

 of the queen. These colonies, how- 

 ever, are by no means nuclei, hardly 

 weak colonies, only comparatively 

 weak: and please notice that in se- 

 lecting one of these colonies you are 

 to take "not the poorest, unless it is 

 populous enough to rear good 

 queens." Doesn't that imply about as 

 plainly us a thing can be implied that 

 there is such a thing as having a col- 

 ony not strong enough to rear good 

 queens? And if a colony can be too 

 weak, a nucleus is weaker than the 

 wea Kcst colony. 



The importance of having good 

 queens is so great that it is taking 

 none too much pains to trust the start- 

 ing of cells to a full colony. After the 

 ceils are matured, it will be all right 

 to give, them to nuclei until the queens 

 are fertilized. 



1 1 does me lots of good to know that 

 you approve of the spirit in which 

 this department is conducted, as 

 mentioned in the rest of your letter, 

 which is not printed; but then you 

 soo I've got to be good-natured, for 

 if I didn't talk good-naturedly to a 

 beginner like you, it would be just 

 like you to get mad and go off and do 

 some fool thing like trying to start 

 queen-cells with a teaspoon of bees; 

 and then how do you think I'd feel? 



ieporfsand 

 experiences 



HHmp 



Burying Bees for Winter 



I am having to answer so many letters con- 

 cerning the burying of bees ( page 913) , that I 

 am going to try once more through the 

 American Bee Journal. 



There seems to be a great fear in the minds 

 of many that the bees will smother. Don't 

 be afraid of that; put plenty of straw on top, 

 and cover them up tight. But be sure that 

 you lix them so that the water will run off, 

 so the trench will be dry. 



Put the bees in in the fall, and take them 

 out in the spring at the same time you would 

 if wintering in the cellar. 



This seems like a queer way to winter bees, 

 but the 2 years I have tried it I have had bet- 

 ter success than the majority of those who 

 have reported in the bee-papers, or of those I 

 have known who have wintered their bees in 

 some other way. I shall bury all of my bees 

 meek. C. H. Benson. 



Bellevue, Micb., Nov. 19. 



Bees Robbing op Playing? 



This morning (Nov. 5.) at 10 a.m., I noticed 

 unusual commotion at No. 173. As few other 

 bees were Hying, and as the thermometer 

 stood 53 in the shade, although there was 

 bright sunshine, I at once suspected robbing. 

 I was especially interested in noticing that 

 there was quite a display of bees running up 

 the front of the hive before taking flight, as 



Mr. Hasty had said, on page 918, that such a 

 thing means " robbing nine times out of ten." 



Uettiog a veil for a close view, I could see 

 no other symptom of robbing— the bees were 

 playing, and after the usual time for a play- 

 spell they settled down quietly. A little later 

 a number of other colonies were playing, and 

 some of the bees ran up the hive front, but 

 not so many as in the first case. 



Certainly not one out of ten, to say nothing 

 about nine out of ten, of these cases had any- 

 thing to do with robbing. I have seen a good 

 many cases of robbing, and I never noticed 

 that the bees ran up the front of the hive on 

 leaving it, and I have noticed them doing so 

 when no robbing was going on I don't say I 

 never saw robbers running up the front of 

 the hive — I only say I never noticed it. Most 

 assuredly I shall watch closely the next ca6e 

 of robbing I 6ee. I have seen colonies where 

 every bee ran up the front before taking 

 flight, and this was kept up all day long every 

 day. The reason was that weeds and grass 

 were so high at the entrance that there was 

 no chance for the bees to take flight from the 

 alighting-board. 



Mr. Hasty, how are we going to settle 

 whether running up the hive-front really is a 

 sign that robbing is going on? 



Marengo, 111. C. C. Milleb. 



Poop Season fop Bees 



We have had another poor season for bees. 

 Bees were nearly all very weak last spring. 

 Very few of them built up strong enough to 

 do anything with the early flow. Then the 

 nights were so cool that comb-builders would 

 be driven from the supers nearly every night. 

 The late flow was good while it lasted, but 

 was cut short by drouth. 



I had 9 colonies, spring count. I had 3 

 natural swarms and 2 artificial ones. All are 

 in good shape for winter, with from 30 to 50 

 pounds of honey for stores. I took off about 

 100 pounds of nice honey, and we are eating 

 honey at our house now. 



A premium queen I received came through 

 all right, and was safely introduced to a col- 

 ony of black bees. The last blacks disap- 

 peared some time ago, and now they are a 

 6trong colony of Italians in fine shape for 

 winter. Freeman Davis. 



Center, Mo., Nov. 6. 



Honey Crop a Failure— Wintering 



The honey crop was a failure here this sea- 

 son, caused mostly, I think, by continual wet 

 weather. Bees are going into winter quar- 

 ters lighter than for y«ars, as it rained every 

 day for 2 weeks beginning Oct. 31, with aster 

 in full bloom, upon which we depend largely 

 for winter stores for our bees. I do not an- 

 ticipate any loss among my 50 colonies from 

 being short of stores, unless we should have 

 bad weather until late next spring. 



I will winter all my lightest colonies in the 

 cellar, and give them attention next spring. 

 Brood-rearing was also discontinued earlier 

 than usual this fall in my apiary, which is un- 

 favorable to wintering most successfully. My 

 experience has been that if a colony has 

 abundance of stores and young bees they 

 need no other protection, provided the hive 

 is not exposed to north winds. A super filled 

 withchail on top of such colonies to absorb 

 moisture is all that is required. Putting outer 

 cases on such colonies is waste of time and 

 labor. James H. Wolfe. 



Captina, W. Va., Nov. 7. 



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