REARING QUEENS. 105 



it is sometimes necessary to treat both stocks — especially the eld 

 one — to tobacco smoke. This precaution, however, is only for 

 the inexperienced, since, in the midst of the swarming season, 

 when the flowers are yielding in profusion, little protection is 

 needed either for the queen or the operator. 



ADVANTAGES OF TIIE NUCLEUS SYSTEM. 



The superiority of this system may be seen by contrasting it 

 with any other method of swarming. Unlike natural swarming, 

 by this system all our new swarms have young queens, and as 

 drone comb is seldom built during the first year of the queen's 

 existence, we get the frames filled almost exclusively with worker 

 comb. By it our stocks and colonies are never without fertile 

 queens. Hence, breeding and honey gathering go on as before, 

 keeping all our swarms strong and safe against moths and other 

 enemies. But in natural swarming (which, if properly managed 

 in movable-comb hives, is preferable to most methods) much 

 time is consumed in idleness by the whole swarm rearing a queen 

 in the best part of the season, besides honey gathering is nearly 

 suspended for ten days after the issue of the first swarm, and no 

 eggs are laid for from two to three weeks, or until the fertiliza- 

 tion of the young queen, and before these mature, so great is the 

 mortality of bees at this season that the stock is sometimes lost 

 from lack of bees to protect its combs. "While, had it been sup- 

 plied with a fertile queen, it could soon have spared another 

 swarm — so incredibly fast do bees breed during the honey har- 

 vest. If by the introduction of a fertile queen," the time gained 



