4G 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



February 



A movable partition is also put in the 

 center of each apartment, thus divid- 

 ing it in two and making eight little 

 hives in each case. Pieces are nailed 

 to the upper part of the bottom board 

 to meet these division boards and make 

 each little hive bee tight. A little 

 board cover is also made for each little 

 hive, and then a regular hive cover 

 laid over all to keep out the rain and 

 to prevent these little covers of thin 

 boards from warping. These extra 

 covers are needed because if all eight 

 of the nuclei were opened at the same 

 time the bees would be crawling back 

 and forth ; and if one were queenless ■ 

 the bees would be coming over into 

 the nuclei that had a queen. Queens 

 might also possibly go from one nuc- 

 leus to another and thus be destroyed. 

 A separate cover for each prevents all 

 this. 



Entrances are made by cutting out 

 a portion of the rim around the edge 

 of the bottom board. About an inch 

 is cut out for each entrance and each 

 is finished with a slide of bee zinc that 

 can be put in place when the queen 

 has been fertilized. In fact this slide 

 is kept in place most of the time, it 

 being removed only when there is a 

 queen of the right age to fly. These 

 guards are a great barrier to the en- 

 trance of robbers. It seems to be al- 

 most impossible to have one of these 

 hives robbed when these guards are in 

 place. I put two entrances on each 

 side and as far apart as possible, and 

 the number of queens lost is very few. 



I'o stock these hives three sections 

 of combs are put into each apartment. 

 This brings the bees all in a close, 

 compact cluster. A caged laying queen 

 is then put into each apartment and 

 the case, without the bottom board , is 



set over a strong queenless colony. 

 Every bee keeper knows how the bees 

 will crowd into those sections and 

 gather about the queen. I then carry 

 the case and set it on the bottom board. 

 Do this just at night when the bees 

 are almost done flying. As soon as it 

 is too dark for the bees to fly release 

 the queens. There is no trouble about 

 their being accepted. I never lose one 

 in this way. By the next morning the 

 queen has begun to lay and the ma- 

 jority of the bees will adhere to that 

 location. Queenless bees are usually 

 ready to give up their location for a 

 new one where there is a queen. 

 When larvfe begin to appear in the 

 combs it is safe to take away the queen 

 and to use the nuclei the same in all 

 respects as in the case with ordinary 

 nuclei that are larger. Laying queens 

 instead of virgins are used to start the 

 nuclei as the bees are so much more 

 inclined to stay with a laying queen 

 than with a virgin. 



These little nuclei are so easy to 

 manipulate. It is seldom necessary to 

 use smoke ; they seldom kill a queen 

 even if she is a virgin , and queens can 

 be found so quickly and so easily. If 

 there is a dearth of orders for one or 

 two weeks or longer as sometimes hap- 

 pens, there are not a pound or two of 

 bees and two or three frames of brood 

 and honey standing idle caring for one 

 queen. 



To unite in the fall simply take off 

 the covers and remove the bottom 

 boards and stack up the cases four or 

 five high, and when they are all nicely 

 united shake them off upon combs of 

 honey and give them a queen. As a 

 rule, however, such bees as these — 

 those that have been used in nuclei 

 all summer — are of little value as 



