110 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



June 



is where auotlier great mistake lias 

 ahvuys beeu witli me, and I know I 

 learned it from others, and that is hav- 

 ing a permanent nucleus. For best re- 

 sults never use the same bees for ac- 

 companying more than one queen in 

 the nucleus hive. Some one is ready to 

 say, "That would be a great waste of 

 bees." This is another mistake. When 

 your queen begins laying, bring in 

 your nucleus, bees and all, shake them 

 into another hive, give them a fram,^ 

 of brood and a laying queen and you 

 will soon have a good colony. Another 

 says; 'That is handling a lot of bees 

 to get one queen mated." Here I want 

 to say that this is where another mis- 

 take comes in. Two tablespoonfuls of 

 bees are plenty to accompany a queen 

 while in the nucleus hive. Some claim 

 that our queens will not be as good by 

 that process. It is the rearing, not the 

 number of bees in the colony at mat- 

 ing time that counts as to quality. 



To get queens mated with few bees 

 it is best to have small boxes or hives. 

 I use a frame four of which fit into 

 a brood frame. By this means I am 

 able to get them filled with honey eas- 

 ily, and when I want to use them I 

 put them In boxes made to fit, stock 

 them with bees and run in a virgin 

 queen four days old, haul a hundred or 

 so out to a mating yard, and seven 

 days later prepare another load and 

 haul them out and bring back the ones 

 I took before. If the weather has 

 been favorable they will be laying. If 

 not, I can pitch them out in any old 

 place until they are ready to mail. 



Now, the success of this plan is in 

 using a few bees to mate a queen and 

 the using of these bees but once for 

 this purpose. 



The Swathraore plan was far ahea.'l 

 of the old plans; but this plan is as 

 far ahead of Swathmore's as was his 

 ahead of those prior. The reason is 

 this: While he used a colony to mate 

 eleven queens. I mate one hundred 

 with the same amount. 

 Fraternally submitted. 

 Berclair, Texas, Nov. 4, 1903. 



When W. L. Ooggshall established 

 his apiary in Cuba, he started from 

 New York with 200 colonies and ar- 

 rived with exactly the same number. 

 This noteworthy achievement is a re- 

 sult of practical knowledge. They 

 were confined fifteen days. 



FORMING NUCLEI. 



By W. W. McNeal. 



WITH the permission of the edi- 

 tor I will here state some 

 things that I have found out 

 about forming nuclei. 



I regard a few good, strong nuclei as 

 being a very necessary adjunct to the 

 apiary; in fact, it seems to me now 

 that I could hardly get along without 

 them, but as a rule, I find it does not 

 pay to try to form them before the ar- 

 rival of settled warm weather. One 

 queen will produce more bees in a col- 

 ony where conditions are normal than 

 will a half dozen queens were said col- 

 ony divided up into that many small 

 ones, while the weather is yet cool and 

 unfavorable. Haste will surely make 

 waste in all work of this kind if the 

 day on which it is done is not warm 

 and the colony or colonies have not 

 been prepared for it. 



The usual diificulty encountered is 

 the disposition on the part of the bees 

 to return to the old location whereupon 

 many bees are sure to be lost if a 

 cold rain were to blow up at the time. 

 So, again. I would say, wait till the 

 air is warm and sweet with the scent 

 of bud and blossom before you at- 

 tempt to launch a nucleus colony for 

 profit Instead of pleasure. 



Now, as to getting a colony ready 

 for dividing its forces, it is very nec- 

 essary to create a desire to swarm. 

 You see there attachment for home is, 

 by this means, broken and all we have 

 to do is to scatter the little colonies 

 about the yard where we want them 

 to remain. The parent colony should 

 be made very strong by systematic 

 feeding begun as early in the season 

 as practicable. Not more than one 

 super should be given for the more 

 room the colony has the longer will 

 preparations for swarming be retard- 

 ed. However, when queen cells are 

 started, either naturally or from ar- 

 tificial cell-cups as the apiarist dic- 

 tates, they shoiTld not be taken from 

 the colony till the young queens are 

 ready to emerge. 



Of course, the colony will swarm if 

 the weather is suitable, as soon as the 

 cells are capped, but they must not be 

 allowed to have their own way at that 

 stage of the game. Those queen-cells 



