MANUAL OF THE APIARY. 165 



others, or who has only pure Italians, will still find that it 

 pays to practice this selection, for, as with the poultry fancier, 

 or the hreeder of our larger domestic animals, so, too, the 

 apiarist is ever observing some individuals of marked supe- 

 riority, and he who carefully selects such queens to breed 

 from, will be the one whose profits will make him rejoice, 

 and whose apiary will be worthy of ail commendation. As will 

 be patent to all, by the above process we exercise a care in 

 breeding which is not surpassed by the best breeders of horses 

 and cattle, and which no wise apiarist will ever neglect. 



After we have removed all the queen-cells, in manner soon 

 to be described, we can again supply eggs, or newly-hatched 

 larvae — always from those queens which close observation has 

 shown to be the most vigorous and prolific in the apiary — and 

 thus keep the same queenless colony or colonies, engaged in 

 starting queen-cells till we have all we desire. Yet we must 

 not fail to keep this colony strong by the addition of capped 

 brood, which we may take from any hive as most convenient. 

 I have good reason to believe that queen-cells should not be 

 started after the first of September, as I have observed that 

 late queens are not only less prolific, but shorter lived. In 

 nature, late queens are rarely produced, and if it is true that 

 they are inferior, it might be explained in the fact, that the 

 ovaries remain so long inactive. As queens that are long 

 unmated are utterly worthless, ' so, too, mated queens long 

 inactive- are enfeebled. 



In a week the cells are capped, and the apiarist is ready to 

 form his 



NUCLEI.- 



A nucleus is simply a miniature colony of bees — a hive 

 ind colony on a small scale, for the purpose of rearing and 

 keeping queens. We want the queens, but can' afford to each 

 nucleus only a few bees. The nucleus hive, if we use frames 

 not more than one foot square, need be nothing more than 

 an ordinary hive, with chamber confined by a division-board 

 to the capacity of three frames. If our frames are large, 

 then it may be thought best to construct special nucleus hives. 

 These are small hives, need not be more than six inches each 

 way, that is, in length, breadth, and thickness, and made to 



