144 
disk fasten a piece of sponge, saturated with honey and 
water. 
Note. — T o hasten the fertilization of the queens, the 
breeder should encourage the production of pure drones. 
The chances for the young queens to become impreg- 
nated are better in proportion to the number of drones. 
The breeding of queens may be continued until late in 
the season, even until October, if drones are retained 
until that time. To do this, deprive of its queen a 
colony containing a large number of drones as soon as 
the bees begin to exclude and destroy them ; the queen- 
less colony will tolerate the drones, and if a piece of 
comb containing capped brood is set near the entrance 
of the queenless hive, so that the bees can cluster upon 
it, the drones excluded from other hives will join them 
in large numbers. Such stocks should be fed occasion- 
ally Although queens may be raised late in the fall, I 
would advise bee-keepers to rear the number of queens 
desired during the months of June, July and August; 
some of the queens reared earlier may not become fer- 
tilized, and many, raised later, are lost. 
By the use of nucleus hives, having combs of the 
same size as those in their regular hive, no comb need 
be cut ; and in the fall, the combs and bees may be 
inserted in any hive where needed. After queen-rais- 
ing ceases in the fall, the bees from small nuclse may be 
united and provided with a queen, forming a separate 
colony, or they may be united with other stocks. 
