THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



199 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Rearing ftueens— Nuclei System. 



w. z. nuTcniNSON. 



I have learned that nothing is 

 gained by commencing operations 

 very early in the season. Colonies are 

 weakened, brood is chilled, and 

 queens do not lay nntil they are two 

 or three weeks old ; in fact, there are 

 only unpleasant features connected 

 with commencing before warm 

 weather has really come to stay ; 

 which, in this latitude, is usually 

 about the 10th or 1.5th of May. 



My first step is to put a nice, clean, 

 light-colored worker comb in the cen- 

 tre of the colony, having the queen 

 from whicli I wish to breed. In three 

 or four days I generally find this comb 

 filled with eggs, the oldest of which 

 are beginning to hatch into larvse. I 

 now remove the queen and all the 

 brood from some strong colony, shak- 

 ing the bees from the brood combs 

 back into the hives, and dviding the 

 brood among the weakest colonies. 

 The queen is either sold or given to a 

 nucleus prepared expressly for her. 

 The comb of eggs and larvie from the 

 choice queen is now given to the 

 queenless and " broodless " colony. 

 1 usually cut a few lioles in the comb, 

 just where the eggs are beginning to 

 hatch, as it gives the bees better op- 

 portunities for building queen-cells. 

 The date that the cells are to be re- 

 moved, is marked upon the top-bar of 

 the frame, and this date is also writ- 

 ten upon a Record J3oard, fastened 

 up in a conspicuous place in the shop. 

 This board is examined each day, thus 

 no batches of queen-cells are forgotten 

 and neglected until some of the 

 queens hatch and destroy the whole 

 lit of cells. When a batch of queen- 

 cells are taken from a hive, the date 

 of that batch is scratched from the 

 board, and when a new batch is 

 started, the date that they must be 

 removed is written upon the board. I 

 have found nine days about the right 

 time for leaving a comb of eggs and 

 just-hatched larvae in a queenless col- 

 ony ; the brood is then all sealed over, 

 and the queen-cells well ripened, but 

 no queens will hatch in that length of 

 time. I never shake the bees from a 

 comb upon which are queen-cells, as, 

 if the queens are not far advanced, 

 the sudden jiir will often dislodge 

 them from their bed in the royal jelly, 

 and they fall to the lower end of the 

 cell where they perish, while, if they 

 are farther advanced, but not fully 

 developed and hardened, the result 

 may be queens with crippled wings or 

 legs. I place one edge of the comb 

 upon the ground near the entrance, 

 coax off as many bees as I can with 

 the smoker, and then brush off the 

 remainder with a feather. After re- 

 moving the comb of eggs from the 

 colony having the choice queen, its 

 place is filled with another nice comb 



or sheet of foundation ; and in three 

 or four days this will be filled with 

 eggs, and can be given to another 

 queenless colony. With 125 nuclei I 

 have found it necessary to start a lot 

 of queen- cells every day. I seldom 

 allow a colony to build more than two 

 lots of queen-cells, when I give it a 

 laying queen. 



A day or two before I expect the 

 first lot of cells to hatch, I start as 

 many nuclei as there are cells. Early 

 in the season I seldom start more 

 than one nucleus from each colony, 

 and I do this by taking three combs 

 with the adhering bees and placing 

 them in a nucleus hive, taking care, 

 of course, not to remove the old 

 queen. At least one comb should 

 contain brood, and it is better that a 

 little of it should be unsealed. As 

 the weather becomes warmer, more 

 nuclei are formed by taking combs 

 with the adhering bees from these 

 three-frame nuclei, leaving only two 

 combs in a nucleus. More nuclei are 

 also formed by taking more combs 

 with the adhering bees from the full 

 colonies. If a colony can spare only 

 one comb, it can be taken and put 

 with a comb from another colony, and 

 thus form a nucleus. I have had no 

 trouble from bees quarreling when 

 they were united or mixed up. 



I consider it important to always 

 have on hand a good stock of queen- 

 cells. A breeder cannot rear queens 

 at a profit if he allows some of his 

 nuclei to remain queenless several 

 days for lack of queen-cells. 



When honey is coming in plentifully, 

 I prefer to put a laying queen upon 

 the combs of the nucleus at the same 

 time that I remove the laying queen, 

 but when there is a scarcity of honey, 

 this plan does not seem to work so 

 well, unless the bees are fed, as some 

 of the young queens are killed by the 

 bees. I have frequently introduced 

 young queens that were three days 

 old ; and one breeder, with whom I 

 talked last winter, says that he has 

 often made a practice of keeping 

 virgin queens until they were five or 

 six days old before introducing them, 

 they would then often become fer- 

 tilized the next day after they were 

 introduced, and five days' time would 

 thus be gained. Before introducing, 

 these young queens were kept con- 

 fined, each queen by itself, but ac- 

 companied by a few workers against 

 the side of a comb of honey kept 

 hanging in the lamp nursery. The 

 cages used to confine the queens were 

 similar to a cover of a tin pepper box, 

 only the tops were wire cloth ; in fact, 

 they were the cover to some discarded 

 " Harris mailing cages." A queen 

 and five or six workers were placed 

 under a cover, then give the cover a 

 turning motion, couibined with a 

 slight pressure against the surface of 

 the comb of honey, which caused the 

 sides to penetrate the comb sufBciently 

 to keep the cage in place. To intro- 

 duce one of these queens the bees 

 were shaken from the combs of a nu- 

 cleus uoon the ground, near the en- 

 trance, the queen put into the nucleus, 

 the nucleus closed except the en- 

 trance, and then the bees allowed to 

 run back in. He seldom lost a queen 



in introducting them, and had been 

 unable to discover that this practice 

 injured the queen in any respect. 



One more point I consider impor- 

 tant, and that is that no nucleus shall 

 remain a single day without unsealed 

 brood. Attention to this matter saves 

 a world of trouble, and largely in- 

 creases the profits. 



Rogei-sville, Mich. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Ventilation of Bees. 



S. CORNEIL. 



I agree with Dr. Tinker in the 

 opinion that the only really trouble- 

 some factor with which bee-keepers 

 have now to contend, is the best mode 

 of winter ventilation. Sometime ago 

 I completed a sort of digest of articles 

 on wintering, and of everything said 

 on the subject as reported in the pro- 

 ceedings of bee-keepers' conventions. 

 This comprised all I could find relat- 

 ing to wintering in 36 volumes of the 

 current periodicals, and in the stand- 

 ard works on bee-culture. The items, 

 thus gleaned, were then classified and 

 arranged under such headings as 

 Cause of Dysentery, Cure of Dysen- 

 tery, The Pollen Ciuestion, VVhere 

 Wintered, Protection, Condition of 

 Cellar. Temperature, Ventilation of 

 Repository, Stores, Upward Ventila- 

 tion, Lower Ventilation, Side Venti- 

 lation, No Ventilation, Space Below 

 Combs, Results, etc. From reading 

 the apparently contradictory theories 

 and plans for wintering, scattered 

 through the bee papers, one is often 

 at a loss to know which method to 

 adopt. On this subject, a prominent 

 bee-keeper writes as follows : " The 

 reports about wintering are so con- 

 flicting that they point to nothing 

 definite, and I confess that I am 

 wholly ignorant of the whole matter." 

 But when the evidence is arranged 

 under such headings as the above, 

 and carefully examined, and the de- 

 gree of intelligence and success of 

 the observers are taken into account, 

 I am quite sure my friend would agree 

 with me that the weight of evidence 

 is overwhelmingly in favor of the 

 opinion that the removal of vitiated 

 air as fast as it is produced, and the 

 substitution of fresh air in the place 

 of the foul air so removed, is the plan 

 which has proven to be most success- 

 ful, and that to the want of this 

 change of air can be traced an exceed- 

 ingly large proportion of the cases of 

 disaster. 



The principles constituting the 

 science of ventilation are always the 

 same, whether considered with re- 

 respect to hives containing bees, the 

 cellar containing the hives, or the 

 apartments above occupied by their 

 owner. Let us see if what is known 

 regarding those principles cannot be 

 made to assist in providing proper 

 ventilation for our bees. 



We are told "The necessity for 

 change of air in inhabited spaces is 

 rendered evident by considering the 

 sources of contamination. They are : 

 a. The production of carbonic acid 

 ga.s by respiration, b. The increased 



