628 
NUCLEUS 
See Baby Nuclei under the head of 
Queen-rearing. 
Generally speaking, the word “nucleus” 
signifies one or two full-sized frames of 
bees, either in a full-sized hive or one just 
large enough to hold two frames and no 
more. When it has five or six frames of 
bees and brood it is usually called a light 
or a weak colony. 
These small aggregations of bees must 
be built up to full-sized colonies in order 
to make them useful for honey produc¬ 
tion ; for it requires a fair colony of not 
less than eight or ten frames in size to pro¬ 
duce honey, and a two-story colony of bees 
and brood at the beginning of the flow is 
far better. While a two or three frame 
nucleus will furnish a little extracted hon¬ 
ey, the amount that it will produce in com¬ 
parison with a large colony is relatively 
small. Or, to put it another way, ten two- 
frame nuclei will produce only a fourth as 
much honey as one two-story ten-frame 
colony. How to build up these nuclei into 
colonies so they will be of some use is fully 
described under the head of Building up 
Colonies, and Increase. 
Nuclei are used for one of two purposes 
—for making increase and for the mating 
of queens. It is a waste of time and bee 
force to have virgins mate from a full col¬ 
ony.. While cells should be raised in such 
colonies, the queens should be mated in 
miniature hives having anywhere from five 
hundred up to one thousand bees. For 
particulars regarding this phase of the 
subject, see Queen-rearing. 
Nuclei may also be useful for the pur¬ 
pose of instruction. A beginner can handle 
a light force of bees much more freely than 
a big colony. The small babies or the two- 
frame nuclei can be manipulated by the 
average ABC scholar very rapidly. 
Queens can be introduced much more easily 
than to the large stocks. As the nucleus 
grows in size, the beginner, who is con¬ 
stantly watching them, grows in experi¬ 
ence; and by the time the colony reaches 
the full size he is perfectly capable of han¬ 
dling it, provided, of course, he has 
read articjes on A B C of Beekeeping, 
Manipulation op Colonies, Stings, and 
Robbing. 
BABY NUCLEI REQUIRE WATCHFUL CARE, 
At the very outset mention was made of 
the fact that baby nuclei of only a hundred 
bees are not practicable. Some years ago 
the late E. L. Pratt of Swarthmore, Pa., 
found he could mate queens from very 
small nuclei. Sometimes he used a single 
section of honey, placed in a little box, and 
gave it about a hundred bees and a cell or 
a virgin. He had a large number of these 
in use, and found it possible to mate his 
queens, using only a very small number of 
bees. While he succeeded, it has been found 
that these little babies of 100 bees are too 
fickle; that many times, when the virgin 
goes out to mate, all of her bees follow 
her. They are constantly swarming out—- 
so much so that it has been found to be 
much more practicable to use at least five 
hundred bees, and, better, a thousand. A 
hundred does not make up a strong house¬ 
hold, and the bees know it. They know 
that something is wrong, and so they swarm 
out on the least provocation. 
Moreover, it has been discovered that 
these little babies of a hundred bees are 
robbed out. The powerful colonies in the 
vicinity make their lives miserable. Even 
contracting the entrance to a passage large 
enough for only one bee has not been 
found sufficient; and the poor little chaps 
have to give way to the superior numbers 
of their enemies, with the result that their 
homes are despoiled, and the nucleus broken 
up. 
A pound of bees consisting of approxi¬ 
mately five thousand makes a very nice 
nucleus. As mentioned under Beginning 
with Bees and Moving Bees, the selling 
of bees in pound packages without combs 
is getting to be quite an industry. When 
bees die in the spring, a pound of bees will 
give a new lease of life to a nucleus that is 
all but gone, but having a good queen. A 
little later in the season, the beginner can 
take a pound of bees, and by feeding 
have a good colony at very small expense 
by fall. See Feeding and Feeders, In¬ 
crease, Building up Colonies, and Be¬ 
ginning with Bees. 
FORMING NUCLEI FOR INCREASE. 
As already explained, dividing colonies 
into nuclei for the sake of increasing the 
