BEARING QUEENS. 
69 
it is sometimes necessary to treat both stocks — especially the old 
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 OP TUE 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 
iu 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 
