52 



ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 



side. When a cell was found containing 

 a queen that "kicked" it was placed in 

 one of these little compartments with 

 glass doors. A little food in the shape 

 of "Good candy" was placed in the cor- 

 ner of each compartment. The nursery 

 was examined early in the morning, and 

 by this management, very few cells were 

 destroyed. 



About three or four days before the 

 first queens are to hatch, enough colonies 

 should be made queenless to furnish bees 

 for the nuclei, as queenless bees will ad- 

 here much better to a new location. I 

 would have at least two combs in each 

 nucleus, one of honey and one of brood. 

 Very early in the season it may be well to 

 give three combs, dividing the nucleus 

 later on. When the nuclei are made up, 

 it may be well to shut the bees in until 

 dark. Many of the old bees will return, 

 but as most of the brood is sealed, enough 

 bees (if they are queenless) will remain. 

 When making up nuclei, if the bees have 

 been queenless, I would give each nucleus 

 a cell nearly ready to hatch, or a 

 young queen, at the time of making 

 the nuclei, as it seems to be something of 

 an inducement for the bees to remain in 

 the new location. As many bees return 

 to the old stand, I leave some brood and 

 honey in the hive, also put in some empty 

 combs and give the bees a laying queen. 

 This colony soon builds up and prospers. 



When a queen begins laying, she is al- 

 lowed to fill the combs with eggs before 

 shipment, then if a young queen is intro- 

 duced soon after her removal, the nucleus 

 receives another "sitting" of eggs in ten 

 days more. By this management all nuclei 

 are kept supplied with brood. One ob- 

 jection to very small nuclei is that the 

 combs are very soon filled with eggs; 

 then the queen goes over them a second 

 time and re-fills them, putting two or 

 more eggs in a cell. After this there is 

 discontent, and it often happens that 

 "swarming out" is the result. When 

 very small nuclei are used', the queens 

 must be removed soon after beginning to 

 lay. 



When honey is coming in freely I have 

 lost few queens by allowing the newly 

 hatched queen to run into a. nucleus at 

 the same time the laying queen was re- 

 moved. After a queen has been hatched 

 two days it is rather difficult to introduce 

 her, unless the nucleus has been queen- 

 less two or three days. Mr. Alley makes 

 a success of introducing these old (?) vir- 

 gin queens by first smoking the bees with 

 tobacco smoke until they begin to show 

 signs of stupefaction. If virgin queens 

 four days old could thus be introduced, 

 it would be a great saving of time, as a 

 laying queen could be secured just that 

 much of tener from each nucleus. 



As a "-ule, a queen begins laying when 

 ten days old, but hot weather and a good 

 flow of honey often .shortens this period. 

 I have frequently had them lay at eight 

 days old, and in a very few instances at 

 seven. During a drouth, when no honey 

 was to be gathered, I have known queens 

 to be three weeks old before laying. At 

 such times as this it certainly pays the 

 queen breeder to feed nuclei in which 

 there are queens old enough to lay. When 

 engaged in queen rearing, I had some 

 shallow boxes, each of which was just 

 large enough to cover the top of a nucleus. 

 The boxes were filled half full of candy, 

 and when a nucleus was found during a 

 dearth of honey, containing a queen old 

 enough to lay, but not laying, one of 

 these boxes of candy was inverted over 

 the nucleus. Two days later the queen 

 would invaribly be found laying. 



A queen rearing nucleus ought to be 

 examined every three or four days. 

 First, it ought to be examined about 

 three days after a young queen is released 

 to see if she has been accepted; then again 

 in four or five days to see if she has been 

 lost in taking her "weddingflight;" again 

 in three days to see if she is laying. In 

 all these examinations it is unnecessary 

 to find the queen, simply look at the un- 

 sealed brood. If no queen cells are start- 

 ed, it is safe to assume that the queen is 

 present. If a young queen is introduced 

 soon after the laying queen is removed. 



