Il8 THE beekeepers' DIRECTORY. 



FoTiainp; nucleus oolonies. 



Let me say here that a nucleus colony may be formed of bees 

 taken at once from a colony having a fertile queen, and the cells 

 sealed or unsealed at once placed in the hive. If eggs, instead of 

 queen-cells nearly ready to cap, were given bees under the same 

 condition, nearly all of them would be destroyed. (How to form 

 nucleus colonies is described in the March, 1889, issue of the 

 American Apiculturist.) 



Several colonies in the Bay State Apiary, in 1888, built from 

 iifty to one hundred queen cells each, and the queen had the 

 free use of the comb the entire season. In fact, I paid no atten- 

 tion to the queen, at any time. V/hen one set of cells were sealed 

 or nearly so, the comb on which they were built was removed 

 and another lot of cell-cups inserted. There is no trouble in 

 keeping the bees at work at cell-building as long as the supply of 

 food is kept up and the cell-cups are furnished them. 



When the combs are filled with syrup extract it, and after add- 

 ing a small quantity of water, feed it back to the bees again. 

 Now if this method for rearing queens will work as well in other 

 apiaries as it has in the Bay State Apiary, why try to rear queens 

 by any other method ? Is there a rnethod for rearing queens that 

 seems so practical or one that comes so near nature ? 



Preparing the combs and eggs for cell-building. 

 The combs and eggs for the queen-cells are prepared for this 

 method exactly the same as they are in the other plan hereto- 

 fore pubKshed by me. As a large number of those who will read 

 this work have never seen a copy of the "Beekeepers' Handy 

 Book," I will give my plan for preparing the comb and eggs for 

 cell-building. It is as follows : ' 



When ready to set the bees to building cells, one of the combs 

 containing plenty of eggs at ' the proper age for starting queen- 

 cells should be removed from the hive in which the breeding 

 queen is kept, and taken to a warm room previously prepared 

 for quickly doing the necessary work. There should be at hand 

 an oil stove, and an iron-pan, say one that is twelve inches long, 

 six inches wide and not less than three inches deep, in which 

 should be a quantity of beeswax and rosin sufficiently heated, to 

 have the material mix well. 



An old table-knife, one having a very thin blade and made 



