Langstroth observed 150 years ago that bees could be continually be removed from healthy colonies without harm, much as a healthy person can give many quarts of blood over time with no ill effect. Langstroth on making nucs: These small colonies I shall call nuclei, and the system of forming stocks from them, my nucleus system; and before I describe this system more particularly, I shall show other ways in which the nuclei can be formed. If the Apiarian chooses, he can take a frame containing bees just ready to mature, and eggs and young worms, all of the worker kind, together with the old bees which cluster on it, and shut them up in the manner previously described ; even if he has no sealed queen to give them. If all things are favorable, they will set about raising a queen in a few hours. If the Apiarian has sealed queens on hand, they ought, by all means, to be given to the nuclei, in order to save all the time possible. I come now to the very turning point of the whole nucleus system. If some of the full combs are removed, and empty ones substituted in their place, she will speedily fill them, laying at the rate of two or three thousand a day ! When my strong stocks are from time to time deprived of one or two combs, if honey can easily be procured, the bees proceed at once to replace them, and the queen commences laying in the new combs as soon as the cells are fairly started. If the combs are not removed too fast, and care is taken not to deprive the stock of so much brood that the bees cannot keep up a vigorous population, a queen in a hive so managed, will lay her eggs in cells to be nurtured by the bees, instead of being eaten up ; and thus, in the course of the season, she may become the mother of three or four times as many bees, as are reared in a hive under other circumstances. By careful management, brood enough may, in this way, be taken from a single hive, to build up a large number of nuclei. If the Apiarian attempts to multiply his stocks [too] rapidly ... I will ensure him ample cause to repent at leisure of his folly. If however, the attempt at very rapid multiplication is made only by those who are favorably situated, and who have skill in the management of bees, a very large gain may be made in the number of stocks, and they may all be strong and flourishing. # Langstroth on the hive and the honey-bee: a bee keeper's manual. # Langstroth, L.L. 1810-1895. # Hopkins, Bridgman, Northampton : 1853. -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and other info ---