798 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 15 



istence in such colonies. She is then intro- 

 duced to the little mating nuclei, and when 

 she begins to lay she is sold. In a word, 

 she is cradled, if I may coin a word, up to 

 the time of mating, in a strong colony that 

 is in the highest state of prosperity; and 

 when she is old enough to seek her own 

 "gentleman company" she is given board 

 and lodging in a small family, so to speak. 

 But even here this little family is fed a 

 little every day so there may be no lack of 

 food; and every inducement is made to get 

 the young lady to lay at the earliest time 

 possible. 



I had supposed it was generally accepted 

 by honey- producers and queen-breeders 

 alike, that, if a young queen were cradled 

 up to the time of mating in a strong colony, 

 she would be as vigorous as any queen 

 could possibly be; that mating in one or two 

 standard-sized-frame nuclei, or even in the 

 miniature boxes, would in no way impair 

 her future usefulness. Indeed, I do not see 

 how it could. In the little mating-boxes 

 she is given lavish attention, and, what is 

 more, the little cluster of bees is much more 

 peaceable and quiet than a larger cluster, 

 hence much less liable to worry the queen. 



How any one could take the position (and 

 I am glad to know that Dr. Miller does not) 

 that a queen cradled in a strong two- story 

 colony, and cared for up to within three or 

 four days of mating, could be rendered less 

 vigorous by having mated in a miniature 

 nucleus is something I can not understand; 

 and I can only assume that the correspond- 

 ent who does take that position has it in 

 his head that these baby nuclei are used 

 for cradling as well as mating the queen. 



But Dr. Miller, in Straws, seems to im- 

 ply that these miniature nuclei may not be 

 supplied with any brood. I doubt if this 

 would do. They must not only be fed, but 

 be kept supplied with brood or they will 

 swarm out. This is very important. And, 

 again, they must not be smoked like ordi- 

 nary colonies. As a rule they should be 

 opened up without any smoke at all. Bees 

 are probably guided largely by scent in 

 their recognition of robbers. If we smoke 

 a large colony there are only a very few in- 

 dividuals that get any smoke; but if we 

 were to smoke a miniature nucleus all the 

 bees would be scented. This makes it dif- 

 ficult for them to recognize a robber, and 

 hence the reports of these little baby nuclei 

 being robbed out. 



Another important essential is that, when 

 these nuclei are formed, the bees must be 

 confined at least three days, otherwise they 

 will desert and go back to their old loca- 

 tions. 



Now, then, those of you who have to do 

 with mating nuclei should understand, 

 first, they must be supplied with brood; 

 second, they must be fed a little right along 

 if no honey is coming in; third, they must 

 not be smoked; and, fourth, must be confined 

 for at least three days at the time of form- 

 ing. 



In addition to what I said about the suc- 



cessful working of these miniature nuclei 

 in mating queens and nothing else, I wish 

 to %<i on record as saying that the results 

 have been even more favorable than last re- 

 ported. We have a larger number of them 

 in use, scattered over the yard, and robbing 

 has been at its worse; and notwithstanding 

 that these little boxes are supplied with 

 feed in very small quantities almost continu- 

 ously, it is a noticeable fact that there is 

 no robbing around them. If we were to 

 smoke them every time we open them up, 

 judging from past experience, I should sup- 

 pose there would be both robbing and de- 

 serting. 



Now, to many of our readers this may 

 seem unimportant, and of value only to the 

 queen- breeder. If any such get that im- 

 pression they are certainly wrong. Every 

 honey- producer can rear his own stock at 

 less expense and bother, if he can work 

 these small mating-boxes. It is well known 

 that it is an easy matter, comparatively, to 

 get cells and good ones; but up till lately 

 the question of mating was the problem, as 

 so many fourth and quarter size colonies 

 (two and three frame nuclei with standard- 

 sized frame) result in the waste of a lot of 

 bees waiting for the queen to lay. Again, 

 it is no eftort whatever to find the queen 

 among a lot of only 200 bees on the combs. 

 She can be spotted instantly. 



If our experiments continue to be as favor- 

 able with these mating nuclei as they have 

 been for the last thirty days, and if other 

 bee-keepers can make them work, then our 

 good friend E. L. Pratt, better known as 

 Swarthmore, deserves a vote of thanks from 

 the fraternity at large for continuing to 

 stick to these little nuclei, even when the 

 veterans and the queen-breeders had de- 

 clared that they were a failure. Dr. E. F. 

 Phillips, who visited Mr. Pratt, said the 

 latter used to be very much amused, an- 

 noyed, and provoked when old queen-breed- 

 ers of experience would assert in the jour- 

 nals that his miniature mating-boxes were 

 a failure. Gleanings, for one, is willing 

 to come out and recant. 



"bee-keeping among the eockies" to 

 be edited by j. a. green. 

 The short time the new department, "Bee- 

 keeping among the Rockies," has been run- 

 ning in these columns has convinced us that 

 it was beginning to fill a long-felt want. 

 While it is true we have been publishing 

 articles from Western bee-keepers, yet we 

 had felt for some time Ihat this great ex- 

 panse of country, west of the Mississippi, 

 deserved more substantial recognition than 

 it has so far received. When we selected 

 Mr. H. C. Morehouse, formerly editor of the 

 Rocky I\Iou}itain Bee Journal, to conduct a 

 department in these columns, we made a 

 wise choice, for no better man could have 

 been found. But that insidious disease, 

 known in latter days as appendicitis, took 

 our correspondent just at a time when his 

 greatest usefulness and his ripest experi- 



