64 BEES FOE PLEASURE AND PROFIT. 



in which a deep hollow (as indicated by the dotted lines) has 

 been scooped. It is easy to form this hollow by boring a 

 number of holes side by side in the top of the division board 

 with a brace and bit, using a |-inch bit for the purpose, and 

 smoothing the inside off roughly with a sharp chisel. The 

 hollow serves to contain the syrup (which may be poured into 

 it at feeding time through an ordinary tin funnel so as to 

 avoid spilling any syrup) and the bees obtain access to the 

 syrup by means of the little round hole a, bored in one side 

 of the feeder. 



Breed Queens from the Best Stock in the Apiary. 

 All queens should be bred from the eggs laid by the very 

 best queen in the apiary ; so if the stock which we intend to 

 divide has not got such a good queen as another stock in the 

 apiary, we can put a frame of comb into the stock with the 

 best queen, and forty-eight hours afterwards, when it has been 

 filled with eggs, we can remove it, and place it in the other 

 hive for the bees to rear queens from. During the time that 

 the young queens are flying to mate, a piece of queen and 

 drone-excluding zinc may be placed over the entrances of any 

 inferior stocks which contain drones which we do not desire to 

 mate with the young queens, as the choice of drones in breeding 

 fine prolific stock is almost as important as the choice of the 

 queens themselves. Xeither queens nor drones should be bred 

 from a queen whose progeny of worker bees is vicious and ill- 

 tempered ; but a queen heading a stock remarkable for strength, 

 docility, and good honey gathering qualities should be selected 

 as the mother from which to breed queens or drones. Never 

 breed the drones with which the young queens are to mate 

 from the same mother as the queens themselves, as such 

 in and-in breeding is sure in time to weaken the breed and 

 cause deterioration. 



Building up the Nuclei. 



The nuclei should be built up in the same way as advised 

 in " Natural Increase " on page 55 ; and if any appear weaker 

 than the others, they may be strengthened with a frame of 

 hatching brood from No. 2 hive — the stock containing the 

 old queen. 



By this method of forming six nuclei from the original 

 stock and two more from No. 2 hive it will be seen that we 



