_Tyrone, Pa._
[For the American Bee Journal.]
Hive for Nuclei.
The experience of a single season satisfies me well with a hive for
nuclei, made by simply taking the ordinary Langstroth hive, separating
it into six compartments, and making the entrances face in different
directions, in this manner:
[Illustration]
Nos. 1 and 6 have the entrances at the back end of the sides, at the
upper corner. Nos. 2 and 5 have a hole bored through the bottom, and the
bottom board channelled, making the entrances come out underneath the
front end of the sides at the _lower_ corner. The entrance of No. 3 is
in front, at the regular entrance; and No. 4 has an entrance at the back
end.
“But will not the queens enter the wrong compartment, on returning from
their excursions?” I have raised fifteen or twenty in a hive of this
kind, and have never lost any.
Instead of a honey board, a strip of board covers each division
separately, so that each nucleus can be examined without disturbing the
others.
The ordinary frame is used, and the principal advantage of the hive
consists in the mutual warmth gained.
I think it pays to keep reserve queens constantly on hand; and I mean to
try whether I cannot winter a few queens in this way.
I have raised some queens by letting the nucleus have brood to start
queen cells from; but they have been slow coming to maturity; and after
they have laid a few eggs, they are sometimes discarded and a young
queen raised from the brood. The trouble seems to be that where queen
cells are started by a small cluster of bees, they do not feed the grubs
plentifully enough, and when the queen hatches out not a particle of
royal jelly is found in the cell. Whereas, when a strong colony raises a
queen, the cell will contain a large quantity of jelly after the young
queen emerges. To obtain good queens, I take the following plan. I take
a frame containing only eggs laid by my best queen, and put it into an
empty hive, and set this in the place of a strong colony. Cells will be
started and the grubs liberally fed, and as soon as they are sealed
over, I cut them out and give them to the nuclei. I then give the hive a
laying queen, and two or more frames of sealed brood, according to the
time of year, and have a good colony.
I am waiting patiently for NOVICE to invent a machine for making
straight worker comb; for as yet I have found no way of securing all
worker comb, except to have it built by a weak colony. My bees build
some drone comb of very strong, even if their queen is not a month old;
and they will build worker comb, _whilst raising queens_, if WEAK
ENOUGH.