THE AMERICAIf BEE JOURNAL. 



389 



^oxxtspontitntz. 



This mark © indicates that the apiarist is 

 located near tne center of the State named; 

 6 north of the center; 9 south; O east; 

 ♦O west; and thisd northeast; "O northwest: 

 o« southeast; and P southwest of the center 

 of the State mentioned. 



For tbe Atnerlcan Bee JouroaL 



liM Nuclei— DnltlnE Colonies, 



G. M. DOOHTTLE. 



[Mr. G. N. Benjamin, of Tampa, 

 Fla., asks that the following article, 

 which was written for the Bee Jour- 

 nal several years ago, be re-produced 

 for the benefit of new readers, es- 

 pecially as it was referred to by ilr. 

 Doolittle in his article on page 309 for 

 May 18. 1887. The article is as fol- 

 lows -.—Ed.] 



I have 'heretofore told the readers 

 of the American Bee Journal how 

 I had tried all the then known plans 

 of making nuclei, none of which 

 suited me on account of so many of 

 the bees going back to the colony 

 from which they were taken. Where 

 an apiarist has two apiaries several 

 miles apart, bees can be brought from 

 the apiary furthest from home with 

 which to form a nucleus, so as to be a 

 success every time. But as all do not 

 have such an apiary, and there is 

 much trouble about the plan, to those 

 who do have, it is quite an object to 

 have a plan by which a nucleus can 

 be formed when and where the api- 

 arist wishes. To accomplish this 

 object. 1 studied out the plan of cag- 

 ing a frame of hatching brood, 

 and by putting a virgin queen two or 

 three days old into the cage, I had a 

 plan that has worked much better 

 than any that I had previously tried. 

 However, in some cases this plan 

 partially failed, as the bees in the 

 hive, in which the caged frame was 

 placed, would partially desert one side 

 of the cage so some of the hatching 

 brood would become chilled, while 

 again some would worry and try to 

 get out until at the end "of five days a 

 portion of the newly hatched bees 

 would be dead upon lifting the frame 

 from the hive, at the time of placing 

 it where it was to stay. 



At the same time that I was prac- 

 ticing the plan described on page 344 

 (1883). I was also trying another plan 

 which was at first designed for the 

 safe introduction of virgin queens, to 

 do which I proceeded as follows : I 

 made a box by taking two pieces of 

 wood 6x6x?4 inches, and two other 

 pieces 12x6xy inches, the latter being 

 nailed to the former, which made a 

 box Wii inches long by 6 wide by 6 

 deep, without sides. I next got two 

 pieces of wire-cloth 12 inches long by 

 6 inches wide, one of which was nailed 

 permanently to one side of the box, 

 while the other was left so it was re- 

 movable at any time. In the top of 



the box was bored a large hole into 

 which a large tin funnel (such as is 

 used by those selling bees by the 

 pound) could be inserted. Xear one 

 end I bored a 'r^-inch hole through 

 which 1 could put in a virgin queen as 

 soon as the bees from a nucleus were 

 shaken through the funnel into the 

 box. The box was then placed in a 

 dark cellar until night, when it was 

 put over the combs of the nucleus 

 from which the bees were shaken, 

 when the removable side of the box 

 was taken off and the bees allowed 

 to return to their combs during the 

 night. 



In this way I thought to introduce 

 and get a virgin queen to laying in 

 two or three days after I had sold a 

 laying queen from a nucleus, which, 

 in' turn, could be sold and another in- 

 troduced in like manner, thus making 

 it profitable to rear queens at the low 

 price of $1 each. But I soon found 

 that not more than one queen out of 

 three thus put into the box would be 

 accepted by the bees, while those 

 which were accepted were so slow in 

 getting fertilized fsome requiring ten 

 or more days), tnat I became dis- 

 gusted and went back to the cell- 

 plan. 



In one of these experiments I took 

 the bees from a full colony to see if I 

 could succeed better, hut they killed 

 the virgin queen almost as soon as I 

 put her into the cage. Just then I 

 was called away, so I hastily placed 

 them in the cellar and left them. 

 When I returned towards night, I 

 thought I would see if I could form a 

 nucleus of them, by placing a frame 

 of brood and one of honey in an 

 empty hive and turning them upon it. 

 Accordingly I rigged the hive as 

 above. Before I had all completed it 

 was nearly dark, so I felt sure that I 

 could succeed, as no bees could get 

 back home until morning. Before 

 sunrise the next morning I saw that 

 these bees had not clustered on the 

 brood at all, but had crawled all over 

 the hive, many of them being outside, 

 from which place they were flying for 

 home. 



When I went to the hive from 

 which they came, imagine my sur- 

 prise to find that they were being 

 treated as strangers, some even being 

 killed, so that not one was allowed to 

 enter the hive. Sutfice it to say that 

 all were lost and killed, but from it I 

 learned one thing, which is, that bees 

 confined in a small space with a dif- 

 ferent queen from their mother, 

 whether dead or alive, would be dis- 

 inherited if kept in such a space for 

 eight or more hours. 



Soon after this I had a queen sent 

 me very unexpectedly, and as I did 

 not value her very highly, 1 thought 

 to form a nucleus with her, and re- 

 solved to trv the caging of bees with 

 her. After" getting the bees into the 

 cage, I feared to let her in with them, 

 so I waited ;i couple of hours, at 

 which time I found the bees in great 

 agitation from knowing that they had 

 no queen with them. I now let the 

 queen rim in through the small hole, 

 when a more happy lot of bees was 

 never seen. These bees were found 

 compactly clustered in the top of the 



box the next morning, when they 

 were hived on two frames of brood, 

 and soon built up into a colony. From 

 all of the above I learned the follow- 

 ing, which I believed to be the best 

 known plan of forming nuclei : 



Procure a box and funnel, as de- 

 scribed above, and go to any hive that 

 can spare from it, from a tea-cupful 

 to a quart of bees, according to the 

 size ot the nucleus desired ; take out 

 a frame or frames having bees on the 

 combs (be sure you do not get the 

 queen), and place it on the outside of 

 the hive. Give the frame several 

 sharp knocks with a little stick, to 

 cause the bees to fill themselves with 

 honey, and when so filled shake as 

 many bees down through the funnel 

 into the box as you wish in your 

 nucleus. Take out the funnel and 

 close the hole, when you will put the 

 frame from which you shook the bees 

 back into the hive and close it. Xow 

 take tne box of bees to the cellar, or a 

 darkened, cool room, and leave them 

 two or more hours, when you will 

 give them (a laying queen) any poor 

 queen you care little for, or a good 

 one if you choose. 



To put the queen in, put the box 

 down suddenly, so that all the bees 

 will fall to the bottom, when the 

 queen is allowed to run in through 

 the small hole. I generally form the 

 nucleus about 1 p.m.. and let the 

 queen in at 3 p.m. Early the next 

 morning, take a frame having a very 

 little brood in it, and one with honey, 

 and place in a hive where you wish 

 the nucleus to stay, using a division- 

 board to contract the size of the 

 hive. 



Now, hive the little colony from the 

 box the same as you would any 

 swarm, and they will go to work im- 

 mediately. In two or three days 

 form another nucleus in the same 

 way, and when you are ready for the 

 queen, go to this last made nucleus 

 and get this same queen to use for the 

 next, which is to De made from the 

 bees in the box, and in this way keep 

 on forming nuclei as long as you wish 

 them. In this way I made 3 queens 

 form 60 nuclei one season. Alter the 

 queen is taken away from the first 

 formed nucleus, to form the second, 

 the nucleus is to be treated the same 

 as any queenless nucleus is treated, 

 and when virgin queens are intro- 

 duced there need not elapse more 

 than a week before the nucleus will 

 have a young laying queen. 



There are three reasons for using a 

 laying queen in forming the nucleus ; 

 the first of which is that the bees will 

 always accept her and behave just as 

 you wish them to ; second, this queen 

 will furnish all the eggs that the 

 nucleus can care for during her short 

 stay, so they are well supplied with 

 young brood at the outset ; and third, 

 a laying queen can be taken from the 

 nucleus sooner by the above plan, as 

 where a virgin queen is used to form 

 the nucleus, such queen is exceedingly 

 slow about becoming fertilized. In 

 conclusion I will say that I know the 

 plan will work if followed as I have 

 given directions. 



Borodino,© N. Y. 



