June 20, 1907 



537 



Am^ricaii Hee Journal 



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Nucleus Method of Increase 



BY G. M. DO0I<ITTLE 



A correspondent wishes me to give 

 him apian in the American Bee Jour- 

 nal whereby he can increase his 4 or S 

 colonies to as many as possible for 

 wintering- the coming fall. Well, here 

 is the way I have done something of 

 the kind in bygone years, when I was 

 anxious to increase a few colonies to 

 as many as could well be done : 



I first get out boxes of suitable sizes, 

 according to the size of the colonies I 

 wish to make, holding from one pound 

 of bees up to 6 or 8, the latter being a 

 very large swarm. For ordinary nuclei 

 nothing is better than a 20-section 

 shipping-case nailed up, and leaving 

 off the side strips that hold the glass. 

 On one side of it, where the glass 

 would go, I permanently nail on a 

 piece of wire-cloth, and for the other 

 side nail a piece of wire-cloth the same 

 size as the first, to 4 strips of suitable 

 length, so these strips surround the 

 wire-cloth as a slate-frame does a slate. 



Now, with 4 small wire nails (one in 

 the middle of each strip) I tack this 

 wire-cloth frame to the opposite side 

 of the box, when I have what I term a 

 " nucleus-box," one side of which can 

 be removed at any time with the blade 

 of my jack-knife. I next had a tin- 

 smith make me a very large funnel, 18 

 inches across the top, with the usual 

 slope of side, coming down to a 2^2- 

 inch upright, or outlet, which was 

 about 2yi inches long. Having the 

 funnel made I pressed the top together 

 from opposite directions till I had it 

 oval at the top about one foot wide and 

 22 inches long, in the diameter of the 

 two ways across the top. It was fixed 

 thus so as to collect in the bees better, 

 when they were shaken from the 

 frame, than would be done if left in the 

 ordinary shape. 



1 then bored a hole in the top of the 

 nucleus-box, which would just let the 

 small or upright end of the funnel into 

 it, and over this hole I fixed a slide to 

 cover it when the bees were in and the 

 funnel out. In one end of the box is 

 fastened a section of honey, of those 

 that were not quite salable and left over 

 from the year before, the same being 

 held in place by a screw going through 

 the end of the case and screwing into 

 the section. This is for feed for the 

 bees should they be kept in the box 

 longer than the honey they take with 

 them lasts, as is quite often the case. 

 This completes the box and funnel 

 part. 



I now boomed ahead as fast as pos- 

 sible the colonies I wished to increase, 

 by using any of the plans given in the 

 books for keeping them warm, stimu- 



lating, etc., and as soon as one be- 

 came strong enough I prepared it for 

 queen-rearing, as I have given in the 

 bee-papers and in "Scientific Queen- 

 Rearing," continuing to rear queens 

 from this colony as was required ; for 

 queens can be so reared and not hinder 

 the colony from contributing its share 

 of bees for increase as well as the 

 others, as the queen is laying all the 

 time in it. This gets us along much 

 faster than where a colony is to be 

 made queenless to provide queens, as 

 is advised by most of the other plans 

 of rapid increase. With this plan no 

 colony is made queenless at all, but all 

 queens are kept laying at their best all 

 the time. 



As soon as any of the colonies are 

 full of bees so they can spare bees 

 from 2 frames, or from half a pound to 

 a pound, and there are ripe queen-cells, 

 take the cells out and put them in the 

 queen-nursery to hatch. As soon as 

 the queens are one or two days old, go 

 to the hives which can spare bees, take 

 from each 2 frames, being sure the 

 queen is not on either of them, and 

 shake the bees from them down 

 through the funnel into the box, doing 

 this at about 10 a.m. Having the bees 

 in the boxes, set them in the cellar or 

 in some shady place where outside 

 bees can not get at the bees which are 

 confined, leaving them till about 5 p.m. 



Now get a virgin queen for each box, 

 putting each in a cage having a stop- 

 per in it filled with queen-candy, so 

 that it will take the bees about half a 

 day to eat out the candy and liberate 

 her. Take these queens to the boxes 

 of bees, picking each up in turn and 

 suddenly setting it down, when all of 

 the bees will fall to the bottom, when 

 the funnel-hole is quickly opened, the 

 caged queen put down through it, and 

 the cage secured by means of a bent 

 wire clamped between the slide cover- 

 ing the hole and the top to the box. 

 Then close the hole, the cage hanging 

 about one inch below the under side of 

 the top to the box, so the bees can clus- 

 ter all about it while they are hanging 

 in a cluster, as they soon will be. 



After the queens are all in the boxes 

 in this way, they are to be set away 

 where they can remain undisturbed 

 till near sundown of the next day but 

 one, or allowing the queen and bees to 

 remain a little more than 2 days in the 

 box, when the bees are found all con- 

 tented with their new queen, and hang- 

 ing to the top of the box like a swarm. 



I now go to the hives that can spare 

 it and take as many frames having a 

 small amount of brood in them as I 

 have boxes of bees, shaking all the 

 bees off from each and replacing with 

 a frame of empty comb. Put one of 

 these frames iu a hive where you wish 



your now colony to stand, together 

 with a frame of honey, or enough in it 

 to secure the bees from starvation, and 

 another frame of empty comb, placing 

 the one having brood in it in the cen- 

 ter Having each hive thus fixed, the 

 bees from one of the boxes are to be 

 put in each. To do this, lower the box 

 down into the hive near the outside 

 comb, and with a knife pry the wire- 

 cloth frame off enough so the bees can 

 run out freely on the combs, when the 

 hives are to be closed and the entrance 

 adjusted to suit the size of the little 

 colonies. 



When the full colonies are strong 

 enough to take more bees from them, 

 get the boxes, now free from bees, 

 fixing them and proceeding as be- 

 fore. As the season advances one lit- 

 tle colony can be formed from each 

 decent colony twice a week, the colony 

 furnishing the queen-cells being equal 

 to any of them in this regard. If you 

 do not have the combs, frames filled 

 with comb foundation will have to be 

 used ; but in this case your progress 

 must necessarily be considerably 

 slower. 



When the honey harvest arrives, 

 keep plenty of combs on the strongest 

 colonies, so that plenty of honey can 

 be stored in these for winter, and as 

 the season advances use more bees 

 each time in making the colonies ; and 

 when fall arrives, if you do not have 

 all the colonies you desire, and you 

 have plenty of combs of sealed honey 

 for stores which you can use, take bees 

 from several hives, thus forming a 

 strong colony at once, and hive them 

 on these frames of sealed stores. I 

 have so formed colonies in September 

 many times, and had them prove the 

 best of anj the next season. 



With plenty of combs at one's com- 

 mand, 10 colonies in the spring can 

 easily be increased to 100 in the fall by 

 this plan without feeding, or any out- 

 lay in cash for queens or feed or any- 

 thing of the kind, and if the season is 

 really a good one some surplus can be 

 secured besides. But the success of 

 the plan lies very largely in not com- 

 mencing operations until the colonie^s 

 are strong, nearly enough so as to 

 swarm, and then not robbing them of 

 bees till they are too weak to work to 

 the best advantage, using few bees 

 for each little colony in June, and more 

 and more as you go along, thus having 

 all come up to full colonies in August 

 and September. 



Half a dozen nucleus-boxes and a 

 funnel have become a part of my out- 

 fit in bee-keeping, and I use them 

 much more often than any one would 

 think, for with them I can handle bees 

 almost as well as could be done with 

 potatoes ; and they will stay where 

 put, when this plan is used, almost as 

 well as would the potatoes. With al- 

 most all the other plans of making 

 colonies or nuclei, the great trouble is, 

 that so many bees return to the parent 

 colony that the nuclei or small colonies 

 are so weak as to be of little value, 

 even if the return is not so great that 

 they are absolutely worthless. 

 Borodino, N. Y. 



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