1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



227 



sion is made, the bees will stay much better, 

 as these cells answer to the mother-queen with 

 such bees; and all but the older, or field-bees, 

 will stay with the mother-queen when she is 

 moved with the frames of brood. But even 

 with ripe cells the most of the old bees will go 

 back home, thus making the nucleus on the 

 old stand three times too strong, while all the 

 rest will be weak. Taking such two-frame 

 nuclei into the cellar for 48 hours at division, 

 and then setting them where they are to stand 

 just at sundown, will help very much toward 

 reconciling them to the new condition of 

 things ; or confining them to the hive on the 

 stand they are to occupy the same length of 

 time accomplishes the same thing. But in 

 this case they wear themselves out very fast 

 from their general restlessness, gnawing about 

 the cracks of the hive to get out, etc.; and 

 with either and all of such plans more or less 

 of the bees will go home anyway, or they 

 would persist in so doing with me. If one 

 has an out-apiary three to five miles from 

 home, then he can carry to and from, and 

 do whatever he likes with bees, and they will 

 stay where put, every time, when using any 

 of the division plans. Now for the way I 

 would and do work: 



I first get out boxes of suitable sizes, accord- 

 ing to the size of nuclei I wish, holding from 

 one pound of bees up to six or eight, the lat- 

 ter being a very large swarm. For ordinary 

 nuclei nothing is better than an ordinary 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, perma- 

 nently 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 four strips of suitable 

 length, so these strips surround the wire cloth 

 as a slate-frame does a slate. Now with four 

 small wire nails, one in the middle of each 

 strip, tack this wire-cloth frame to the oppo- 

 site side of the shipping case or box, when 

 you have what I term a nucleus-box, one side 

 of which can be readily removed at any time 

 with a jack-knife by prying a little so as to 

 loosen the nails. Or this movable side can be 

 hinged on; but I prefer it as above, especially 

 in getting the bees out. 



Next get your tinsmith to make you a great 

 big funnel, which should be 18 inches across 

 the top, with the usual slope of side, coming 

 down to a 1]/> -inch upright, or outlet, which 

 should be about '1% inches long. If this out- 

 let is much less than 2^ inches in diameter 

 the bees will clog, instead of readily passing 

 down through, when a frame of bees is shaken 

 into the funnel. 



Having the funnel made, strike two oppo- 

 site sides against something, or squeeze to- 

 gether till you have an oval funnel about a 

 foot wide and 22 inches long, in the diameter 

 of the two ways, across the top. This will 

 collect your bees in better, when the frame is 

 shaken, than it would if left in the ordinary 

 funnel shape. Next bore a hole in the top 

 of the nucleus - box which will just let 

 the small or upright part of your funnel 

 down into it, and fix a slide, button, or some- 

 thing of the kind, to cover this hole, when 



the bees are in and the funnel out. Beside 

 this bore two or three one-inch holes through 

 the top near either end, and with a proper-siz- 

 ed plunger push a suitable-sized piece of wire 

 cloth down into the box so it will hang down 

 inside of the box from two to four inches, 

 when the wire cloth is tacked at the top to 

 make it stationary. These places are for re- 

 ceiving Good or queen candy, granulated hon- 

 ey, or soft A sugar, with a little water poured 

 on it, for feed, should the bees be kept long 

 enough in the box at any time to require feed- 

 ing; but as a rule I have feed in these places 

 all the time, then I am always safe. This com- 

 pletes all the box part. 



Now crowd the colonies you have left in the 

 spring toward full colonies, just as fast as pos- 

 sible, using all the plans with which you are 

 familiar, or given in the bee-books, for keep- 

 ing them warm, stimulating, etc.; and as soon 

 as any one of them gets strong enough pre- 

 pare it for cjueen-rearing as I gave on pages 46 

 and 47, Jan. 15th Gleanings, and continue 

 to raise queens from this colony as you may 

 require, for you can do this and not hinder 

 this colony from contributing its share of bees 

 for increase, as well as the others, as the queen 

 is laying all the time in it. As soon as any of 

 the colonies are full of bees, so they can spare 

 bees from two frames, or from half a pound to 

 a pound, and you have ripe queen-cells, take 

 the cells out and put them into the queen-nur- 

 sery to hatch. 



As soon as the queens are one or two days 

 old, go to any hive which can spare bees, take 

 out two 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 about 10 o'clock. Having the bees in the 

 box, set it in the cellar, house, or shop, or in 

 some shady place where outside bees can not 

 get at the bees which are confined, leaving it 

 thus till about 5 p. M. Now get one of the vir- 

 gin queens, put her in a cage having a stopper 

 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. Pick up the box of 

 bees and suddenly aet it down, when all of the 

 bees wdl fall to the bottom, when you will 

 quickly open the funnel-hole, put in the queen- 

 cage, and secure it about two inches from the 

 top of the box by means of a wire clamped 

 between the slide and the top of the box, in 

 closing the hole again. Now set the box away 

 in a shady place, leaving it till just at sun- 

 down of the following day, when you will find 

 the bees all contented with their new queen, 

 and hanging to the box like a swarm. Then 

 go to any hive that can spare a frame having 

 a small amount of brood in it, and get such a 

 frame, shaking the bees off, and replacing 

 with a frame of empty comb. Put this frame 

 in a hive where you wish your colony to stand, 

 together with a frame of honey, or enough in 

 it to secure the bees from starvation, and two 

 or three empty combs, placing the one having 

 brood in it in the center. Now lower the box 

 of bees down into the hive, near the outside 

 comb, and with your knife pry the wire-cloth 

 frame off enough so the bees can run out free- 

 ly on the combs, when you will close it and 



