A YEAR AMONG THE BEES. 
81 
not to hatch later than June 21 ; that on June 21 I saw the 
young queen and gave them young brood ; and that on June 
28, 1 clipped the wing of the queen which I found laying. 
INTRODUCING QUEENS. 
If I wish to take one of these queens to introduce else- 
where, my favorite plan of introduction, — almost, indeed, 
the only one I ever used, — is to place the queen, without cag- 
ing, directly on the middle of a comb of brood, right among 
the bees. I must first be sure that these bees have started 
queen-cells. If I wish to introduce an imported, or other 
valuable queen, I give her to a frame of brood with 
young bees just gnawing out, or else to bees that I am sure 
are young, by having moved them a day or two before, in the 
middle of the day, to a new location, so that the old bees 
might all fly back to the old location. 
I gave my general way of introducing a queen,— by that I 
mean when I introduce the queen alone, but generally it 
happens that I can take the frame of brood on which I find 
her, and put it, bees and all, where I want the queen to be. 
In time of a honey-flow, I have even done this without 
being sure that they realized their queenlessness. 
INCREASE BY NUCLEI. 
After a nucleus is started, it is an easy thing to build it up 
into a colony, by adding frames of comb or foundation as 
fast as the bees can take care of them. During the hot 
season of t he year, I do not hesitate to spread the brood of 
these young colonies, for there is little danger of chilling, and 
1 think they can be made to rear brood faster than if left to 
themselves. One year I took 12 colonies to the out apiary, 
increased them to 81 , and took 1 ,200 pounds of honey, by 
means of this nucleus process. All the help they had from 
other colonies was the eggs from which to rear queens; but 
they had no combs to build, being furnished with ready- 
built combs, and the honey taken was extracted buckwheat. 
