62 BEES FOE PLBASUEE AND PROFIT.. 



tintil the queen has hatched out, to prevent the bees leaving 

 the hive. It is necessary to wa±ch that none of the nuclei 

 run at all short of stores, and they must be gently fed when- 

 ever this is the case. 



Hive No. 2, which contains the old queen, may be provided 

 with two or three more frames of empty comb or foundation if 

 it is strong enough. It is likely to require feeding like all the 

 other nuclei. 



Breed Queens from the Best Stock in the Apiary. 



All queens should be bred from the eggs laid by ihe very 

 best queen in the apiary ; so if the stock which we intend to 

 divide has not got such a good queen as another stock in the 

 apiary, we can put a frame of comb into the stock with the 

 best queen, and forty-eight hours afterwards, when it has been 

 filled with eggs, we can remove it, and place it in the other 

 hive for the bees to rear queens from. During the time that 

 the young queens are flying to mate, a piece of queen and 

 drone-excluding zinc may be placed over the entrances of any 

 inferior stocks which contain drones which we do not desire to 

 mate with the young queens, as the choice of drones in breeding 

 fine prolific stock is almost as important as the choice of the 

 queens themselves. Neither queens nor drones should be bred 

 from a qiieen whose progeny of worker bees is vicious and ill- 

 tempered ; but a queen heading a stock remarkable for strength, 

 docility, and good honey-gathering qualities should be selected 

 as the mother from which to breed queens or drones. Never 

 breed ,the drones with which the young queens are to mate 

 from the same mother as the queens themselves, as such 

 in-and-in breeding is sure in time to weaken the breed and 

 cause deterioration. * 



Building up the Nuclei. 



The nuclei should be built up in the same way as advised 

 in " Natural Increase " on page 55 ; and if any appear weaker 

 than the others, they may be strengthened with a frame of 

 hatching brood from No. 2 hive — the stock containing the old 

 queen. 



By this method of forming six nuclei from the original 

 stock and two more from No. 2 hive it will be seen that we 

 have an increase of ten from the original one hive. Allowing 



