34 



PRACTICAL QUEEN REARING 



The Rauchfuss Mating Boxes. 



Fig. 6. 

 Rauchfuss Mating Box. 



This is perhaps the smallest mat- 

 ing box ever devised which has been 

 used successfully. Beginners or those 

 with limited experience, are quite 

 likely to have much difficulty from 

 the bees swarming out to accompany 

 the queen on her mating flight with 

 any small nucleus. Even the most 

 expert are never able to overcome 

 this difficulty entirely. 



The Rauchfuss nucleus consists 

 of a small box with removable front, 



holding three 4/ / 4x4/4 comb-honey sections, Figure 6. The 

 entrance is by means of a small round hole in the front, which 

 can be closed entirely, when moving them, by simply turning 

 a small button. As devised by the inventor, one section of 

 sealed honey is used, and sealed brood is removed from a strong 

 colony and cut into squares of the right size to fill one of the 

 remaining sections. The presence of the brood will in many 

 cases prevent the bees from absconding when the queen takes 

 her flight When used without the brood, there will be a larger 

 percentage of loss from absconding. A cupful of young bees 

 taken from a strong colony is sufficient to stock the box, when a 

 virgin queen from a nursery cage is run in through the entrance 

 hole. After the box is stocked and the young queen run in, 

 the entrance is stopped. When all boxes to be stocked at one 

 time are ready, all are carried to a point some distance from 

 the apiary and tied in trees, set on some convenient object, or 

 otherwise placed until the queens shall be mated. Of course 

 the entrance should be opened as soon as conditions are favor- 

 able after reaching the destination. It will be necessary to 

 remove the queens from these diminutive hives soon after they 

 begin to lay. Should it be inconvenient to do so at once, 

 the box is provided with a piece of queen excluding zinc which 



