564 ' A MANUAL OF BEE-KEEPING. 



QUEEN-BREEDING AND NUCLEUS HIVES. 



The practical Bee-keeper will soon see the many ad- 

 vantages acquired by having on hand fertile Queens. 

 Quinby says : " The introduction of a mature fertile 

 Queen to a colony two weeks sooner than when they 

 swarm naturally is an advantage sufficient to pay for 

 extra trouble. The time gained in breeding is equiva- 

 lent to a swarm." According to Monticelli, the Greeks 

 and Turks of the Ionian Islands knew how to make 

 artificial swarms, and the art of producing Queens at 

 will has been practised by the inhabitants of a little 

 Sicilian Island called Favignana, from very reniote 

 antiquity, and he even brings arguments to prove that it 

 was no secret to the Greeks and Romans ; but it is not 

 noticed by Aristotle and Pliny. After a stock has 

 swarmed, which takes place usually in the height of the 

 busy time, much time is lost by the parent stock raising 

 a new Queen, and when raised she has to get fertilized, 

 which may not happen for two weeks or more ; all this 

 time breeding is suspended, and as mortality is very 

 great in the summer the former strong stock probably 

 dwindles ; and if the young Queen on her excursidn 

 meets with any mishap, the stock will die, as it then has 

 no eggs or young brood with which to rear another 

 Queen. - If the Bee-master be able to supply it with a 

 fertile Queen, immediately on the issue of the swarm, 

 no time is lost — breeding is kept up, and in a few days, 

 if desired, the hive may be induced to swarm again, or 

 the Bees may be set to work to fill a super, provided 

 honey be abundant. By never leaving a hive without a 

 fertile Queen, I may safely say its increase is doubled. 



