lo Nov., 1 910.] Xuclei for Mating Queen Bees. 695 



NUCLEI FOR MATING QUEEN BEES. 



R. Biulnie. President, yierflriun Apiarists' Association. 



In the raising of queens for the purpose of superseding those which 

 are either too oM. or otherwise inferior, bee-keepers often encounter diffi- 

 culties in any one of a num!)er of metliods employed to get the voung 

 cjueens safely laying. 



The most direct, but also the crudest and most wasteful way, is to kill 

 the old queen and either let the bees raise cells themselves or supply them 

 with a queen-cell previously raised elsewhere. If the queen killed were 

 old, but had been a good one in her time, thr bees may raise a good young 

 queen from her brood, but in the case of an inferior queen no improvement, 

 except in age, need be expected. When a queen-cell of good stock 

 raised under the jiroper conditions is given, the result will be as good as 

 b} any other method, so far as the vitalitv and prolificacv of the voung 

 queen are concerned. 



In either case, however, there is a considerable loss in the reproduction 

 of the worker-force of the hive, much less certainly, but still considerable, 

 when a cell, ready to hatch within two days, is gi\en. When allowing the 

 bees to raise a new queen themselves after destroying or removing the 

 former queen, it will be at least 21 days before the young queen commences 

 egg-laying; when a cell is gi\en it will be twelve days during which repro- 

 duction is at a standstill. Now, as good queens cannot be raised, except- 

 ing under the very conditions which cause brood-rearing to be at its best, 

 it follows that breeding is interrupted just when it should be at the maxi- 

 mum. Even a poor or old queen will at such a time lav 500 eggs per 

 day, representing for 21 days a worker force of 10,500 bees and 6,000 for 

 twelve days, but as young bees continue to hatch for 21 davs after the old 

 queen is remo\ed, the weakening of the colony does not become e\ident 

 till a month afterwards, by which time the circumstances have probablv 

 passed from memory. 



It is a generall)- understood fact that there can be only one queen in a 

 hive at a time and, with the one exception referred to further on, that holds 

 good, as, on the average, from the time the young queen hatches till she 

 Ijegins to lay, ten days elapse, and a break in egg-laying for that period 

 must of necessity occur. To reduce this interruption of breeding to a 

 minimum, or to do away with it altogether, different methods have been 

 ■evolved and practised, principallv bv American bee-keepers in the first 

 instance. 



The plan which does away with stoppage of egg-laving altogether is 

 to confine the queen to the combs of the lower chamber bv means of a 

 queen-excluding honeyboard. About half of the combs of brood are 

 placed in the upper story, to which a separate entrance is provided. A 

 queen-cell is given above and the young queen will take her mating flight 

 from the upper entrance, and in due course will commence to lay while 

 the old q\ie*;n in the lower chamber still continues. The voung laving 

 queen may be remo\-ed and used elsewhere and another cell given. 



This is an ideal method in theory, but success depends upon a com- 

 bination of circumstances. These are: a colonv covering the combs of 

 two stories ; a queen in the lovver chamber at least two, but better three 

 years old ; a free use of the upper entrance by the worker bees, and a 



