36 



PRACTICAL QUEEN REARING 



ends of the box. About a half a pint of bees is used to stock 

 each compartment. This, in effect, is very similar to the 

 Rauchfuss mating box, excepting that it is necessary to go to 

 more trouble to get combs built especially for these nuclei. 

 There is the same trouble from absconding, and the same danger 

 of being robbed by strong colonies if left within reach. During 

 a good honey flow when all conditions are favorable, it is pos- 

 sible to get a large number of queens mated in these little hives 

 with a minimum of cost in bees, but during a dearth when it 

 becomes necessary to feed to keep any kind of nucleus from going 

 to pieces, they are likely to prove the source of much annoyance. 

 See Figure 7. 



Small Hives. 



At Figure 8, we show some small hi\'es formerly popular 

 with queen breeders, but which have almost gone out of use. 

 As will be seen in the picture, one is single and the other is 

 double. The double one has entrances opening in opposite 

 directions to avoid danger of the queen entering the wrong com- 

 partment. 



Fig. 8. Small mating hives in Strong queen yard. Tliis type of hive was 



once quite generally used but is now going out of use. 



[From Productive Beekeeping.] 



