344 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



For the Ameiinan Bee Journal. 



Making or Forming Nuclei. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Every bee-keeper who expects to be 

 up with the times, and make the most 

 from his bees, should have on hand, 

 at this season of the year, several 

 laying queens, held in reserve to sup- 

 ply any colony needing a queen at a 

 moment's notice; especially where any 

 method of increase other than natural 

 swarming is adopted, reserve queens 

 should be kept on liand to be given to 

 the queenless part of the divided 

 colony. 



In order to keep these reserve 

 queens, it is necessary that we have a 

 nucleus or small swarm of bees in 

 which to rear them, from the time the 

 queen-cells are ready to be taken 

 from the colony producing cells, till 

 the queen is fertilized and ready to 

 become the mother of a colony. 



Many ways have been given for 

 making a nucleus of bees, most of 

 which prove to be a failure, and re- 

 sult in loss with the inexperienced. 

 The one most commonly given in our 

 books and bee journals is to go to any 

 colony which can spare them, and 

 take a frame of hatching brood and 

 one of honey, together with all the 

 bees thereon (being careful not to get 

 the old queen), <ind place them in a 

 hive where you wish the nucleus to 

 stand ; thus forming a minature col- 

 ony of bees. The hive is to be con- 

 tracted to the requirements of the 

 nucleus, and in 24 hours a nearly 

 mature queen cell is to be given. This 

 looks very pretty on paper, but when 

 we come to put it in practice, it is 

 found that in nine cases ont of ten, so 

 many of the bees will return that our 

 nucleus is practically good for noth- 

 ing, and often results in the chilling 

 of all the brood in the frame, if the 

 weather is cold. The other day, while 

 in conversation with a bee-keeper 

 having several years' experience, more 

 than the writer of this article, he re- 

 marked that his nuclei had " gone 

 back on him," and when asked how 

 he made them, he gave the above 



Elan. I remarked that it was strange 

 ow young a bee would return to the 

 oW liive under sucli circumstances, 

 when he said there was scarce a hun- 

 dred bees left in his nucleus where he 

 had put a quart or more. 



If the above plan fails in the hands 

 of a bee-keeper having 16 years or 

 more of experience, how can it be 

 expected that the novice will succeed 

 with ity Several years ago, after 

 repeatedly failing with the above 

 plan, I had occasion to set a frame of 

 bees and brood, on which was the 

 queen, into an empty hive, and to my 

 surprise nearly all the bees staid 

 where 1 placed them. In a few days 

 I returned the queen, and as the bees 

 had become established in their new 

 location, while the queen was with 



them, a good nucleus was the result. 

 Thus I learned how I could form a 

 nucleus which could be depended upon 

 every time. Another thing I ascer- 

 tained, that a colony having queen- 

 cells considered such cells the same 

 as a queen, and by taking a frame of 

 brood which had a nearly mature 

 queen-cell upon it, together with one 

 of honey, bees and all, from such a 

 colony, a nucleus could be formed so 

 that nearly all the bees would stay 

 where placed. Thus to make several 

 nuclei, all I had to do was to count 

 the queen-cells in the hive about the 

 time they were sealed, then go to the 

 other hives and take frames of hatcli- 

 ing brood (brushing off all the bees), 

 till I had as many as I had queen- 

 cells, and place them in the hive 

 having the cells. Two days before 

 the queens were to hatch, cut out the 

 cells and fix one in each frame of 

 brood, and the next day make the 

 nuclei by taking the frames to their 

 several hives, giving each a frame of 

 honey. In this way I rarely, if ever, 

 had a nuclei " go back on me," and 

 have so framed the most of my nuclei 

 till the present season. This season I 

 have adopted a new plan which 

 pleases me so well I will give it to the 

 readers of the Bee Journal, so they 

 can share in my pleasure. Seeing a 

 note in some convention report, of 

 how a party had a queen nursery made 

 so he could hang a frame of queen- 

 cells in it, and then hang the nursery 

 in a full colony of bees in the place of 

 a frame of brood, I jotted down in my 

 reference book (see former article on 

 " How to use our bee journals "), un- 

 der the appropriate date, " Try form- 

 ing nuclei in that way," givitig page 

 and bee journal where it was to be 

 found. 



When the time arrived I made a 

 cage of wire cloth, which would 

 hang in the hive, and large enough so 

 that one frame would hang inside 

 of the cage. I now got a frame of 

 hatching brood, brushed all the bees 

 off from it, hung it in a hive having 

 a full colony oi bees, and left it six 

 days, when I had the cage pretty well 

 filled with bees, and more hatching 

 all the while, I now took it to a hive 

 where I wished a nucleus to stand, 

 took the frame out of the cage, placed 

 a frame of honey by the side of it in the 

 hive, placed the cage in empty side of 

 the hive, so the bees which adhered to 

 it could get with the rest on the 

 combs, and I had a nucleus so formed 

 that none of the bees could go back, 

 for they had never had a flight. I 

 was also independent of the weather, 

 for a nucleus could be thus formed 

 during quite cool days and nights. 



Another thing which pleased me 

 still more : The next time I tried I 

 inserted in the frame of brood, before 

 placing it in tlie cage, a queen-cell 

 nearly ready to hatch. As this queen- 

 cell hatched in a day or so, I had a queen 

 5 days old in my cage when I took it to 

 my nucleus hive. In a day or two 

 she took her wedding flight, and I 

 had a laying queen 5 days after I 

 formed my nucleus, thus making a 

 great gain of time. I have written 

 this in a hurry, and if all is not suf- 

 ficently plain, I will describe it 



further. All will readily see the ad- 

 vantage of the plan. 

 Borodino, N. Y. 



For the American Bee JoumaU 



A Few Wrinkles From 



J. O. SHEARMAN. 



On page 302, it is stated that the 

 queen " utters shrill notes of anger." 

 Allow me to state how it is done ; 

 perhaps it is not generally known. 

 The queen makes the noise termed 

 " piping" with her wings. I have re- 

 peatedly seen them do it, and shown 

 it to other bee-keepers. The motion 

 is much the same as that of a cricket 

 when chirping (so called). I did not 

 suppose any bee had a voice, in fact, 

 how could they shout so loud with 

 their proboscis V Because — elephants 

 do V But elephants have to shout 

 through their trunk or keep still, as 

 they have no wings to vibrate. 



Wrinkle 2. As so much is said 

 about introducing, I will say that I 

 always liberate a clioice queen as late 

 in the evening as I can see to do it, 

 unless the conditions are all favora- 

 ble. A queen can be quietly dropped 

 into a prepared colony with hardly 

 any risk, if put in so late that the bees 

 cannot see to fly, and so quietly as 

 not to stir them up. I used to do it 

 by a round wire cage, with a plug at 

 each end, and a string tied to each 

 plug, and then ends of string brought 

 out from under the quilt-cover, then 

 leave the wood cover off the hive and 

 pull the strings gently till something 

 (the plug) separated. It would be 

 done so quietly and late that " no one 

 knew it but me." Another point is, 

 the queen will not crawl out of the 

 hive in the dark, as sometimes hap- 

 pens in mid-day. The queen is to 

 blame for nearly one-third of the fail- 

 ures in introducing, provided, of 

 course, the colony has no queen cells. 



Now honey is coming with a rush, 

 and it may be done almost any way, 

 and the quicker the better, to save 

 time. 



Wrinkle 3. Can a queen breed two 

 kinds of drones at the same time V or 

 would it be called an indication that 

 there might be two queens in a hive, 

 to see drones like pure Italians, and 

 pure blacks, living together by the 

 hundreds V How is that Mr. Ileddon? 

 Please answer through the Weekly. 



To explain my case— I have a very 

 strong colony, put up last year for ex- 

 tracting, with a full set of drone 

 combs in the second story. I had one 

 of those dark Italian queens, impurely 

 mated ; the colony did not swarm last 

 year. I ran all the season for extrac- 

 ted honey, and did well ; then, in the 

 fall, being very busy, I was caught by 

 the snow before all my bees were 

 packed for winter, and, as we had 

 much weather last fall that was too 

 bad for brushing bees off the combs, 

 this big one was among those un- 

 packed, and therefore was carried into 

 the cellar with the rest. It weighed 

 over 100 lbs., possibly 150 or more. 

 They wintered tip-top— wentto breed- 

 ing early, and kept it up, as they had 

 plenty of backing. They tilled the 



