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:
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.
C. C. Miller.
Marengo, Ill., Aug. 30, 1870.
[For the American Bee Journal.]