138 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



we begin our work with the bees, and it 

 might be a little help to some to give an 

 account of my actual experience. 



I commenced keeping bees when a 

 small boy, over 20 years ago. I used 

 small boxes, somewhat like Alley's, for 

 several years, and always started them at 

 swarming-time. Of course, I put in a 

 little brood, a little honey, a few bees 

 and a queen-cell, and such queens were 

 as sure to mate as their sisters in the 

 large hives, and were as good queens in 

 every respect as those that commenced 

 work in full colonies. I sold and gave 

 away many queens to my neighbors, and, 

 of course, sometimes had to take some 

 from large hives, and I noticed that those 

 from the small nuclei stood the rough 

 handling and caging better than those 

 from the large hives. But then I did not 

 know enough to replace the removed 

 queens with other fine cells, unless by 

 chance I happened to have some nearly 

 ready to emerge, so I allowed them to 

 rear their own, and such were nearly al- 

 ways inferior to the first lot, or those 

 reared in full colonies. All this led me 

 to the conclusion that small nuclei were 

 all right for one queen, but of no further 

 use after that. So I united them after 

 taking the first queen away, and made 

 up more new ones if I needed any again. 



Thus I used them for several years, and 

 some of the best queens I ever owned 

 were mated from these little boxes. 



HOW TO MANAGE WITH SMALL FRAMES 

 AND SM.\I,L NUCLEI. 

 T have read all of the apicultural liter- 

 ature of our country since 1879, and, from 

 thne to time, made what seemed to be 

 improvements, and adopted every feature 

 I could make use of from the experience 

 of others. I will not describe in this 

 article my method of getting cells and 

 handling them, which is a little different 

 from the ordinary methods, but I will say 

 that I have made a test each year, for the 

 last three years, by taking two frames of 

 brood and bees as nearly alike as possi- 

 ble, both with much "ripe" brood; one I 

 put into a regular nucleus hive with a 



frame of honey, brood, division board, 

 and entrance at opposite corner, accord- 

 ing to Doolittle, with one ripe cell; with 

 the other I shook the bees into a cage, cut 

 the brood into eight pieces, put each 

 piece into a section, and, in making up a 

 nucleus, I put in a section of unfinished 

 or dark unsalable honey, then a section 

 of brood with a ripe cell, then a division 

 board, the entrance being a y% hole at 

 the opposite side, at least six inches away 

 from the division board. Then I shook 

 in a teacupful of bees through a funnel, 

 according to Doolittle's plan, and closed 

 up the top immediately with a thin 

 board over a piece of ducking cut to fit. 

 For a hive I used an old fashioned Hed- 

 don super which held four nuclei. When 

 the eight were done, all were set in a cool 

 place for two davs with the entrances 

 closed, then about sundown, or a few 

 minutes before, they were put in a shady 

 place (not too dense) and opened. 



In 12 days after, seven, and sometimes 

 eight, as fine queens as one would wish, 

 were taken from them, while only one 

 was taken from the regular single-frame 

 nucleus ! 



NOTICE THE DIFFERENCE IN RESULTS. 



Through the season, from the eight 

 small ones, I took 19 queens one year, 26 

 another 3'ear, and 23 the next, while 

 from the one-comb, or regular size, I got 

 four one j'ear, four the next, and five the 

 next, and no better than the former. I 

 concluded that I could sell queens for 25 

 cents each from these small nuclei, and 

 make more profit from them than at 

 |i.oo each from the regular size frame. 



I gave room as needed, by moving the 

 division board over, putting in another 

 section of comb the same as with large 

 ones, and drawing occasionally from 

 stronger ones to help tho.se that failed to 

 mate queens; and I always kept the seal- 

 ed honey in the sections next to the wall, 

 as that attracts robbers the least when in 

 that position. 



I now use 4x5 sections, and, in the 

 nuclei, smrdl frames that just hold a 4 x 

 5 section. Six such sections fill a Lang- 



