FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 331 



if the sections were not at all injured by it. So I now 

 have a little cleat about ^-inch wide at the outer edge 

 of the board, on all four sides, giving the pressure right 

 where it is needed. If the outer part of the sections comes 

 out, there's no danger but that the rest of the sections 

 will keep company. 



BABY NUCLEI. 



There has been much inerest in the matter of having 

 queens fertilized in small nuclei containing only 200 bees 

 or so. Forty years ago I had seen miniature nuclei in the 

 apiaries of Adam Grimm, but they had not so few bees 

 as the so-called baby nuclei of to-day. Of course, I had a 

 number of queens fertilized in baby nuclei, but I did not 

 go to the trouble of having hives specially built for them. 

 I merely used an 8-frame dovetailed hive, putting in it 

 sometimes a 1-pound section nearly filled with honey, 

 and sometimes two such sections side by side. A frame 

 of brood with its adhering bees was taken from some 

 colony, the bees shaken or brushed into the nucleus-hive 

 quickly, a virgin not more than a day or two old dropped 

 into the hive among the bees and all hastily closed, the 

 entrance having been closed in advance. Of course, the 

 frame of beeless brood was returned to its old place. 

 Three days later the entrance was opened, and in due time 

 the queen was laying. 



However it may be for the commercial queen-rearer, 

 for the honey-producer there seems no great advantage in 

 baby nuclei. He generally needs to make some increase, 

 and it is more convenient for him to use 2 or 3-frame 

 nuclei for queen-rearing, and then build them up into full 

 colonies. 



DOUBLING QUEENS IN NUCLEI. 



In this Mr, E. R. Root has given to bee-keepers 

 something that seems to be a real gain. Throughout the 

 season of 1905, I followed the plan with much satisfac- 

 tion. A few days— perhaps a week — after the first virgin 



