February, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



99 



DESCRIPTION OF NUCLEI USED AT THE WIS- 

 CONSIN AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT 

 STATION. 



The nuclei hives, as designed by the 

 writer at the Wisconsin Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station, provide for three nuclei 

 in one ten-frame hive body. In Fig. 3 is 

 shown these nuclei hives in actual o{:eration. 

 One entrance is had at each end, and one 

 from the side. In the picture the middle 

 nucleus is open while the other two are 

 left closed. This is accomplished by pro- 

 Anding: for three inner covers that will 

 exactly tit over the three compartments. 

 In this way no mixing of queens or bees 

 is had at any time. A regular cover fits 

 over the inner covers at other times. 



The so-called " baby " nuclei are not prac- 

 tical under Wisconsin conditions. This 

 conclusion must be drawn after two years 

 of work with them in this state. In the 

 spring- they are not populous enough to 

 keep up a normal temperature during the 

 cool nights; and after the first of Aug:ust 

 thej^ are rapidly depleted for the same 

 reason. Owing to the cool nights the three- 

 frame nuclei have been found to give the 

 most satisfaction. Since there are three 

 nuclei in one hive body, the temperature is 

 kept very constant. 



The mating of queens is very uncertain 

 • during cool weather, and far more favorable 

 conditions are provided for northern 

 queen-rearing by using nuclei of the size 

 mentioned. 



There is also' very little loss of queens in 

 mating, as the entrances to the nuclei are 

 all on opposite sides of the hive body. 

 Another advantage of the three-frame 

 nuclei is that they are always veiy strong, 

 and can be kept so with ease. At the end 

 of the season, if several are united they 

 build up into fair colonies and can be 

 wintered successfully. ' 



RECORD OF CELLS. 



In order to give the reader a better 

 conception of the success that has been 

 had bj' using the methods here outlined, 

 a portion of the record of the two cell- 

 building colonies used at the Wisconsin 

 Agricultural Experiment Station during 

 the season of 1916 is here given. It will 

 be seen that the results are very uniform, 

 and that, if an average were taken, it 

 would be found that a total of more than 

 ninety per cent of the cells were accepted 

 during the entire season. This record tak&s 

 into account cool nights when the tempera- 

 ture was very low outside the hive and 

 rainy weather. On one or two occasions 

 the bees did not enjoy a flight for two 



days, yet the cells were accepted as well 

 as under the most favorable conditions. 



Results for August were similar. 

 FINAL CONCLUSION. 



The method for rearing queen-bees that 

 has been here described is applicable just 

 as well to the man who owns a few colo- 

 nies, oi^erates large apiaries, or makes a 

 business of queen-rearing from a com- 

 mercial standpoint. It will appeal to the 

 beekeeper who owns only a few colonies, in 

 that he is never compelled to dequeen a 

 colony to secure cells for requeening or 

 making increase. To the extensive bee- 

 keeper it means time saved. The profes- 

 sional queen-breeder can confine his entire 

 efforts to a few colonies; whereas, here- 

 tofore he was obliged to use a large num- 

 ber of colonies thruout the season in order 

 to obtain enough queen-cells to supply the 

 many nuclei he operates. This rnethod of 



