■84 



PRACTICAL QUEEN REARING 



after nuclei are formed, it may be necessary to feed them for 

 a long period of time, only in the end to find it necessary to 

 unite them again to get them strong enough for winter. Get- 

 ting queens mated in an upperstoryisnot new; yet there are some 

 elements in the following plan which differ somewhat from 

 methods previously given to the public. 



The author has experimented to a limited extent in the 

 hope of finding a plan which takes nothing from the parent 

 colony, other than the honey necessary to rear the brood com- 

 posing the new colony. There is no risk, since the old colony 

 is not weakened by removing part of the field force, and the 

 division is not made until the new colony is strong enough to 

 shift for itself under almost any conditions. The following 

 plan comes near realizing this ideal, having been uniformly 

 successful in a limited way, even under unfavorable conditions. 

 This is the outgrowth of a system of swarm control in the pro- 



Fig. 35. Quccn-mating nuclei under tlie pine trees of Alabama. 



