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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



March 



suit in confusion. The O'ther disad- 

 vantage was that the date had to be 

 written when virgins or cells were 

 introduced or when queens were 

 caged. The Root nucleus box is em- 

 ployed, but instead of the inner wood 

 and outer paper covers being used, 

 ,a double wood telesco'pic aofver, with 

 ventilating air space between, is 

 found to serve to better advantage. 

 On the side of the cover are galvan- 

 ized iron signals pointed one end 

 and square the other, made to pro- 

 trude above the level of the covers 

 or to fold below the level of the cover 

 so as to allow nuclei to be piled on 

 the truck when moving. On the 

 painted cover is a set of figures ar- 

 ranged in a circle representing the 

 dates of the month to 31. From the 

 center radiates an arrow after the 

 manner of the hand of the clock. 

 With these signals all that is to be 

 known about the interior workings 

 of the nucleus may be read at a 

 glance, and after the operator has 

 learned the different signals he may 

 walk by a nucleus without stopping, 

 and know whether it needs a cell or 

 a virgin, whether a laying queen re- 

 quires to be caged or whether the 

 nucleus requires bees, brood or 

 honey, or all three. 



All are represented by one signal 

 on the side of the nucleus and the 

 dates on the cover. Bees, brood, 

 honey, bees and brood, bees and 

 honey, honey and brood required are 

 all represented by the other signal, 

 and it seems queer that so much can 

 be said with so few signals; and the 

 beauty of the whole system is that 

 absolutely no writing is required 

 whatever, and everything goes along 

 in fine shape. No queen is allowed to 

 leave the yard that has not laid a 

 frame full of eggs, then there is no 

 guess work, and customers are satis- 

 fied. 



Another inniovation is the "stock- 

 hive." It is the "mother" to all the 

 baby nuclei. One stock-hive takes 

 care of the needs of from forty to 

 fifty nuclei. It is a hive containing 

 frames as used in the nuclei with 

 seventeen to the body and may be 

 tiered three or four high if neces- 

 sary. In it is housed a regular colony 



A big load of package bees on the way to the ex.press office. 



with queen, workers, drones, eggs, 

 larvae, pollen and honey. It's pur- 

 pose is to supply whatever is required 

 by the nuclei, such as eggs or larvae, 

 bees or brood, and it is much more 

 convenient than putting three of the 

 frames into a regular Langstroth 

 frame. All that is necesary is to 

 open a colony and remove the re- 

 quired frame and replace with the 

 one taken from the nucleus. 



Mr. Wing's system of swarm box, 

 cell builder and nursery cage is sim- 

 ilar to those in use by most queen- 

 men, with slight variations. The 

 cell cups, in wliich the grafts are 

 made are all home-made, being 

 dipped forty at a time by a scheme 

 of his own. Instead of the cells be- 

 ing forced into the little blocks with 

 a fastener the reverse end, they are 

 secured by means of hot wax to flat 

 pieces of wood one-eighth inch thick 

 and seven-eighths inch square. 

 Twelve of these are put on a bar by 

 means of hot wax and are then ready 

 for grafting. After the sticks have 

 once been waxed they are good for 

 all time, and when working in the 

 sun are always ready for immediate 

 use; all that is necessary is to press 

 the cell stick on with the thumb and 

 forfinger. The larvse used for graft- 

 ing are about twelve hours old. All 



Bliss Damon with a mating yard of baby nuclei, in .Saii Juaiiuiii Valley, 

 in willow honeydew region. 



grafting is done dry, no jelly being 

 used, and we find that fully as many 

 are accepted by this method as when 

 jelly is used, without all the extra 

 trouble and time wasted. The grafts 

 are then put in the swarm box to be 

 accepted by queenless bees. The 

 swarm bo.x is in use all summer with- 

 out changing bees, young emerging 

 bees and sealed brood being given 

 whenever necessary to keep up the 

 strength of the cluster. The swarm 

 bo.x holds three frames, two of brood 

 and honey and one containing grafts. 

 It is always queenless except when 

 a virgin drifts in and later com- 

 mences to lay, then all operations are 

 delayed until she is removed. The 

 frame of cells, containing three bars 

 of about 36 to 40 cells, is placed be- 

 tween the two frames of brood and 

 honey, and in the specified time is 

 removed and any unaccepted cells re- 

 moved and replaced with accepted 

 cells from another swarm box. Re- 

 inoving the sticks from the bars is a 

 simple process, a slight pressure of a 

 hive tool between the cell stick and 

 the bar soon pries them loose, and an- 

 other cell put in place by a pressure 

 of the thumb and forefinger. The 

 swarm box bees give the cells all the 

 chyle that is necessary for them to 

 be accepted by the cell builders. 



The cell builder is a colony with 

 young larvae above and queen be- 

 low an excluder. Two or three frames 

 of cells are placed between frames of 

 young larvae and left for ten days 

 from the time of grafting, for the bees 

 to complete. After coinpletion they 

 are put either in nursery cages or are 

 introduced direct to a queenless nu- 

 cleus. Sometimes in the spring they 

 are put into an incubator run by 

 electricity, but this is not always 

 necessary. If the completed cells are 

 put in nursery cages they are re- 

 turned to the colony from which they 

 were removed until emerged, when 

 the virgins are placed wherever re- 

 quired. 



But queen-rearing is only part of 

 the business. The combless package 

 branch takes considerable time in 

 shaking bees, building up colonies in 

 order to make them of sufficient 



