MATING-HIVES 33 



every day during the season, rain or shine, and during the rush 

 days of midsummer must prepare hundreds of cells. Not the 

 least of the advantages of this building is the protection from 

 robbers. Where it is necessary for the operator to be at work 

 for several hours at a time, this little building in the center 

 of the yard is a great time and labor saver, as well as adding 

 much to the convenience and comfort of the operator. It merits 

 more general use. While the one shown in the picture admits 

 more light than is necessary on bright days, the extra glass 

 space will be much appreciated in dark and cloudy weather. 



Mating-Hives. A 



The honey producer who rears queens only for the purpose 

 of improving his stock or requeening his apiaries, seldom both- 

 ers much about mating-hives. When he has a lot of sealed 

 cells ready for use, he simply kills off the old queens to be 

 replaced and about twenty-four hours later gives each of the 

 colonies a sealed cell. In this way he avoids the bother of 

 introducing queens, for the young queen will emerge in the 

 hive where she is expected to remain. From there she will 

 take her mating flight, and, the only further concern necessary 

 on the part of the beekeeper, is to take care to replace any 

 queens that are lost on their nuptial flight or that fail to emerge 

 properly. 



The commercial queen breeder will require a large number 

 of nuclei or small colonies to care for surplus queens, until 

 they are mated and ready to be mailed to customers. There 

 is a large variety of hives of various sizes used for this purpose. 

 Where queen breeding is the prime object, the tendency is to 

 use as small hives and as few bees as possible, so that the largest 

 possible number of queens may be reared with the bees and 

 equipment available. However, many of the most success- 

 ful queen breeders find serious objections to baby nuclei and 

 small mating boxes, and advocate nothing but standard frames 

 for mating-hives. 



