82 
A YEAR AMONG THE BEES. 
I do not know that there ever was such a yield of buckwheat 
here before or since. 
UNITING NUCLEI. 
There is much irregularity in tbematterof rearing queens. 
Sometimes every queen seems to know what is expected of 
her, and commences laying right along ; while at other times 
many fail. Perhaps both queens in one double hive do nicely ; 
in another, both fail. It may be the first queen-cell given 
fails, and a second, and even a third, may meet the same 
fate. I do not want to keep on rearing queens after the 
harvest is over ; so I must make allowances for these failures, 
by starting more than I want. 
Suppose toward the close of the season I have used all the 
queens I want in full colonies, the nuclei that I did not care 
to keep have been broken up, and there remain some queen- 
less among the nuclei in the double hives intended to be 
built up into full colonies. If the nucleus in one side of a 
double hive is queenless, and the other has a laying queen, 
the two are united. A passage is made in some way through 
or under the division-board, and in two or three days nearly 
all the bees will be found in the side having the queen. The 
combs, or a sufficient number of them, may then be put 
together. Sometimes I make the union at once by simply 
putting the division-board to one side. 
It may be that No. 5 has a queen in each side, while No. 6 
has one in neither. In this case I take from No. 5 the frame 
containing the queen and put it, bees and all, in No. 6. Both 
sides of No. 6 may be at once united, and the same thing 
may be done at No. 5 a couple of days later. In this way 
every hive contains at least one queen, and some of them 
two. These latter will remain as two separate colonies, 
unless by means of a defective division-board they take the 
matter of uniting into their own hands. 
