19! 9 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



237 



Mr. Chantry was very successful 

 with these little nuclei, and succeeded 

 in mating three or four queens, with 

 the same quantity of bees as were 

 usually used in a standard two- 

 frame nucleus. 



A year or two later, the writer 

 came to Idaho to engage in beekeep- 

 ing as a business, and one of the first 

 moves was to establish a number of 

 such nuclei, and these nuclei were 

 seen in operation by Mr. E. R. Root 

 when he visited here in 1901. 



Results here, with our cool nights, 

 were unsatisfactory, but with the 

 publication of articles by Swarth- 

 more, Laws, Bankston and others, a 

 careful study was made of the entire 

 matter, and every modification tested, 

 as to size, as to age of bees, etc., and 

 in 1904 a lot of nuclei were in use, 

 folding like the Laws and Bankston 

 nuclei, and containing one 4x5 sec- 

 tion, and operated on the same plan 

 of temporary stocking with bees, to 

 be broken up as soon as the queen 

 was found laying and later the same 

 boxes were tested, with one section 

 as before, and an old tough comb, 

 with the cells removed on one side, 

 and waxed in one on the little trays 

 that constitute the hive-sides, giving 

 the bees a chance to cluster between 

 two comb surfaces. 



These too, were unsatisfactory. 

 Next, we tried the modified Swarth- 

 more boxes, with two combs, about 

 4J4x5f1s, and these, too, were finally 

 discarded. Then we built SO nuclei 

 on the Laws folding plan, with one 

 regular shallow extracting comb, and 

 these were a little better. Later these 

 were changed into three shallow 

 combs to each nucleus, but they were 

 too long for the most economical use 

 of a half-pint to pint of bees, so, as a 

 last test of small nuclei, we adopted 

 the regular standard frame, 55^x8, 

 which were originally designed to be 



fitted three into a standard Lang- 

 stroth frame, to get frames filled 

 with brood and honey, for stocking 

 nuclei. 



This size proved to mate just about 

 as many queens, per nucleus, as the 

 larger Langstroth frame nuclei, and, 

 where economy of bees is most im- 

 portant, is the best all-round size of 

 nucleus frame. 



However, we found that for the 

 practical producer of honey, it is 

 much better to use a nucleus that 

 will hold at least 4 frames, as, if 

 queens are mated, and not needed at 

 once, turn the excluder over the en- 

 trance, so they will not swarm out, 

 and given a frame or two, with 

 starters only, when the little nucleus 

 will work as contentedly as a full 

 colony, and build down perfect 

 worker combs. If all beekeepers con- 

 templating the adoption of the small 

 nuclei would adopt those, using the 

 standard baby nuclei frames 5-5^x8, 

 exchange of fine queens, and of se- 

 lect brood for queen-rearing, would 

 be facilitated, as a little nucleus con- 

 taining one frame of this size can be 

 sent for a very small charge. For 

 some years past the writer has dis- 

 pensed with the cumbersome plan of 

 fitting the baby nucleus frames into 

 Langstroth frames to secure brood 

 and honey in them, and was the first 

 to devise and publish the plan of fit- 

 ting a division across a 10-frame 

 shallow super, as illustrated and de- 

 scribed on page 92 of the American 

 Bee Journal, 1917, without credit to 

 the inventor. 



Such supers are used as stock hives, 

 and one or more colonies are at all 

 times kept in them, from which a 

 frame of brood or honey can be 

 taken at any time. 



When we wish to s( >ck up a lot of 

 baby nuclei, we put ;upers of such 

 frames, filled with co nb, on several 

 strong colonies about the yard, give 

 them a quart of feel about every 

 hour, and by night the little combs 

 are nicely stocked with honey, just 

 right for making up nuclei. 



Now, as to the reasons why the ex- 

 tremely small nuclei failed here. 

 After all these years I am not sure of 

 my reason, except that the boxes are 

 so small as not to be adapted to the 

 instincts of the bees, and hundreds, if 

 not thousands, of the fine cells and 

 virgins have been lost by these tests, 

 most of which would have mated and 

 been of value if a larger size had been 

 used. 



Meridian, Idaho. 



Marketing Honey 



By J. E. Crane 



NOW. that there is a lull in the 

 demand for extracted honey, is 

 a good time to discuss the best 

 way to dispose of our next crop. For 

 those who have little time to market 

 their crop perhaps it is just as well 

 to sell to any buyer who is willing to 

 pay a fair price for it, or turn it over 

 to a reliable commission merchant 

 who makes a specialty of selling 

 honey. But for those who have the 

 time and are willing to put in the 

 work there are better ways for sell- 



ing both comb and extracted honey. 

 I know of one beekeeper who, al- 

 though he runs a large farm, witli 

 dairy and several hundred hens, has 

 found time to peddle out a large part 

 of his honey, thereby saving shipping 

 cases and freight bills, as well as 

 commissions. Another way that will 

 doubtless appeal to a large number of 

 beekeepers that live near large towns 

 is to put their honey in neat and at- 

 tractive packages and place in groc- 

 ery stores for the retail trade. A 

 friend disposes of all of his honey in 

 this way. If the demand is not equal 

 to his supply he has placed a one- 

 comb hive of bees in the store win- 

 dow to attract customers. The amount 

 of honey that can be sold in this way 

 is surprising. Another way, and per- 

 haps the best way where one has a 

 suitable location, is to retail from 

 your own home to those who call for 

 it. The location should be on a 

 much traveled road. Of course, a 

 sign should be hung up in plain sight 

 of the highway, "Honey for Sale." 

 But, better than this is to have the 

 yard of bees set where it is easily 

 seen by those passing. A good 

 friend of mine, who has sold the past 

 season his entire crop of some 10,000 

 pounds in this way, says his sales 

 have nearly doubled since he cut 

 away the trees between his yard and 

 the road. 



This method not only saves rail- 

 road freight bills, commissions and 

 shipping cases and crates, but to a 

 considerable extent containers also, 

 for his customers who are acquainted 

 bring their pails to be filled, but to 

 those who do not tie feels free to 

 charge for a pail that he fills for 

 them. He takes his surplus almost 

 wholly in shallow extracting frames, 

 extracting a part and cutting out the 

 nicest to sell as chunk honey. He 

 sells the comb and extracted honey 

 at the same price, and his dark buck- 

 wheat, when he has it, as some pre- 

 fer it to white honey. 



Another method that has some 

 merit is to put your honey in suitable 

 packages for the retail trade and 

 then travel from town to town and 

 take orders and ship direct to the re- 

 tail merchants; but the difficulty is 

 that unless you can make large sales 

 rapidly, which is not always easy to 

 do. the expense of traveling and hotel 

 bills will take 11 the profit over what 

 you could have got from the whole- 

 sale buyer or dealer. Still another 

 way is to put your honey in the most 

 desirable form and let the wholesale 

 grocery house, who has a large num- 

 ber of agents on the road, take or- 

 ders and send them to you to ship di- 

 rect to the retail merchant. If this 

 method were very generally followed 

 it would seem as though every retail 

 store in the country might in a few 

 years be supplied with hone}'. Of 

 course, suitable literature and adver- 

 tising matter should be supplied to 

 those taking orders. 



But how shall extracted honey be 

 put up for the retail trade? This will 

 depend much on the section into 

 which it is shipped and those who con- 

 sume it. A large demand is coming 

 from restaurants, hotels and dining 

 cars for individual packages holding 



