4% 



Fig. 1.— S. D. House's nucleus hive for mating young queens, one comb 

 only being used. 



remove them as soon as they are sealed, to 

 avoid having them destroyed after the man- 

 ner of natural-built supersedure cells. Like- 

 wise, colonies preparing to swarm may be 

 taken advantage of, their cells destroyed, 

 and a grafted culture substituted with the 

 very best results, but available only during 

 the swarming season. 



I regard queenless colonies for cell-build- 

 ing (even though they are strong) as the 

 last ditch, and only to be resorted to when 

 all other methods fail, as they often do, 

 especially toward the close of the season. 



It is under such conditions that regrafting 

 comes to the res- 

 cue of the bee- 

 keei)er by com- 

 l)elling the bees 

 to keep the cells 

 open longer than 

 they otherwise 

 would, and all 

 the while adding 

 to the supjily of 

 jelly. 



For early-mat- 

 ing purposes I 

 use a hive of my 

 own design, 

 shown in the il- 

 lustration, which 

 I call the mor- 

 mon m a t i n g - 

 hive, it is a ten- 

 frame hive-botiy 

 with three ])er- 

 l)endicular saw- 

 kerfs Yz inch in 

 depth, and 3>^ 

 inches apart, run 

 in each end, with 

 kerfs to corres- 

 pond, in the 

 hive-bottom. In- 

 to these kerfs ^,. ., , , , ^ ^ , 

 are fitted three of bles'u";edf """"'""''" '^ 



Gleanings in Bee Culture 



sheets of heavy tin, 

 thereby dividing the 

 hive into four com- 

 l)letely isolated two- 

 frame comi)artments. 

 An entrance is pro- 

 vided on eacli side 

 and end, and four in- 

 dividual covers with 

 a large cover to cover 

 all. I like this style 

 of hive because it 

 takes the standard- 

 size frame, and can 

 be stocked from any 

 hive in the apiary, 

 and for the same rea- 

 son can be easily 

 united for honey- 

 gathering, or convert- 

 ed into a two-com- 

 partment hive for 

 wintering by with- 

 drawing two or more 

 of the tin partitions 

 and closing two of 

 the entrances. The heat commimicates 

 freely through the tin partitions, and thus 

 approaches the natural conditions of a full 

 colony. For summer mating a much small- 

 er and more economical hive may be used. 

 I consider the mormon hive more especially 

 adapted to the needs of the bee-keeper who 

 raises a few hundred queens for his own 

 use than for the queen-rearing specialist. 



Returning to my regrafting method, I 

 wish to say that I do not want my readers 

 to infer that I claim to be able to outdo na- 

 ture, for I do not. I often find the jelly, 

 left in regiafted cells after the queen hatches. 



Inserted in the nucleus-bos, showing the number 



