and its Economic Management. 285 



Simmins' Nucleus Method. 



A plan which I have found very satisfactory, and which 

 was first suggested to my mind by the fact that I had long 

 made a practice of sending queens off with bees they had 

 never seen until the moment of fastening down in the 

 various receptacles they were to travel in, is as follows : — 

 Make up a 3-frame nucleus in a small hive 14! inches by 

 1 1 inches inside (allowing 2^ inch space under the " Stan- 

 dard " frame) ; then confine the bees, with ample ventila- 

 tion, and as soon as they are in an uproar, having found 

 themselves to be queenless, let the new arrival run under 

 one corner of the quilt, first driving the bees back with a 

 little smoke. Keep them thus confined in a darkened 

 room, and liberate on the evening of the third day, stand- 

 ing the nucleus where it is to remain ; and as soon as 

 strong enough give a frame of hatching brood at intervals 

 of seven days. Before inserting the queen, she should, 

 for greater security, be kept alone and without food for 

 thirty minutes. 



Mr. Doolittle (of America) also appears to have dis- 

 covered that confined bees will readily accept a strange 

 queen. His plan is to shake the bees into a box, well 

 ventilated, and as soon as they are in distress at the loss- 

 of their queen, he allows the new one to run among them 

 through a small opening, otherwise kept closed. In a 

 day or two the bees are placed upon brood and store 

 combs, where it is intended they shall remain. 



Few bees will return to the old hive in either case, but 

 there appears to be more labour than with my own plan, 

 in that bees are twice shaken from the combs ; first, ta 

 place them in ponfinement, and next to provide the brood 

 and other combs to start them in a new situation. By 

 my plan, the bees have their own combs all the time, and 



