I o June. 19 'Q.] Tlic Rcarinii of (liiccn Bee. 369 



surplus which one should expect from the great number of bees raised. 

 A prolific queen producing vigorous long-lived workers is very .soon re- 

 stricted in egg production bv the relatively large number of old field bees, 

 the honev gatherers filling much of the comb with honey once the colony 

 has attained normal strength. In the ca.se of a colony having a queen 

 producing short-li\-ed workers the position is reversed. Many of the bees 

 jr. such a colony die soon after reaching field bee age ; therefore the young, 

 the nurse bees, predominate. It is the work of the young bees to feed 

 larvae, prepare cells for egg-laymg, and attend the queen. As the number 

 cf field bees bringing in honey is little more than sufficient to supply w-hat 

 is needed for imm.ediate consumption, the colonv will show a xexy large 

 amount of l)rooil in all stages right through the season but will store less 

 hoxiey for the apiarist than colonies which, with a smaller amount of brood, 

 have far more old field bees. 



As a breeder, I prefer the queen of a colonv which has the maximum 

 number of bees from a moderate amount of brood during a season. This 

 results naturally in a good yield of honey, and indicates longevity of the 

 bees. There are, however, other desirable characteristics, such as puritv 

 of race, gentleness, and absence of excessive swarming, which are needed. 

 The number of queens which conform to all these requirements is, even in 

 a large apiary, usually rather limited. 



Important as the .selection of the queen mother is. the raising of the 

 young queens by the best possible method, and under the most favourable 

 conditions, is not less so. Poor queens mav result when queens are raised 

 ■under unfavourable conditions, no matter how suitable the mother queen 

 is. There are man\ different methods of raising queens and good queens 

 may be obtained bv any one of them if everything is just right. The 

 difficulty is, that many bee-keepers fail to ob.serve when conditions are 

 suitable and when not. A prosperous condition of colonies, an income of 

 pollen and honev, and a warm moist atmosphere, are essential. A heavy 

 honev flow is not the best time for queen rearing, particularlv when it 

 occurs during hot dry weather. There may be both pollen and honey 

 coming in. and vet the right conditions mav not exist, even though atmos- 

 pheric conditions appear favourable. This is probably owing to some 

 deficiencv in quality of the stores gathered. It may, however, be taken as 

 an indication that conditions are favourable when the voung larvae are 

 surrounded l)v a plentiful supplv of pure white food. The colonv selected 

 for raising cells from the pgsrs or lar\as of the chosen breeding queen 

 should be strong, particularly in nurse bees. 



The " Doolittle " m.ethod of transferring young larvae to artificial cell 

 cups and getting the cells raised, either in a queenless colony or over the 

 ■queen-excluding honeyboard in the super of a strong colony, has the 

 advantage of enabling one to know exactly when the queen cells will hatch. 

 The sam.e ad\antage can be obtained by the " Alley " method without 

 disturbing the voung larvae. Queenless bees are compelled to raise queen 

 cells under the impulse of .self-preservation, whether the conditions are 

 suitable or not. Often they appear to raise them rather hurriedly. There 

 is no doubt that good queen cells are produced by bees bent on swarming 

 (in the proper season). They are raised deliberately, and only when con- 

 ditions as to food supply and strength in bees are suitable. But the bees 

 of queens from swarm-cells inherit the swarming impulse, which the best 

 apiarists of all countries are trying to eliminate, and such queens are 

 therefore not desirable in anv numbers. 



