April, '22] PADDOCK : COST OF POOR QUEENS 137 



another during the season in the hopes that they would eventually be- 

 come good producing queens. The assumption was then made that a 

 poor queen at the start seldom makes any surplus crop. There is such 

 a wide variation in the constitution of queens that som.e do well or 

 even excellent from the very start. Others never seem to attain the 

 record which the apiarist has reason to expect. Weekly exam.ination of 

 colonies even if not in detailed manner will certainly reveal som.e lagging 

 colonies. Such colonies should be indicated and given special attention. 

 If such colonies remain below the average condition for the yard for 

 a period of more than two weeks they should be replaced. When the 

 building up period of the spring is well under way, when the spring honey 

 flow becomes reasonably constant, a queen which slows up for two 

 weeks is of doubtful value. Certainly if this slowing up occurs later 

 during the period preceding the harvest it is even more disastrous. 

 From, careful observation it would seem that a queen may start on the 

 decline at any tim.e and without apparent cause. 



If production is carefully watched it is necessary to get a good queen 

 in every hive as soon as a queen shows any signs of failing. To be 

 in a position to do this a system of "queen reservoir" has been put in 

 operation. This is merely a 2-frame nucleus in a standard hive which 

 is divided into three compartments. During the past season it was 

 found that practically every queen introduced by the cage method 

 into a nucleus was accepted. These nuclei were often com.posed of 

 frames of sealed brood with clinging bees from two colonies. In this 

 nucleus it was possible to observe how different queens started off 

 and of course the best were always used first for introduction into 

 colonies. Carried farther the nucleus should be a "proving grounds" 

 for queens and thus reduce the possible num.ber of inferior queens 

 which may find the way to the head of colonies to be later replaced. 

 In this way the loss in introduction was greatly reduced in the process 

 of getting good queens in every colony. The details of apiary manage- 

 ment of this queen reservoir were worked out quite successfully and 

 will be still farther improved and tested during the coming season. 



The introduction of the entire nucleus into a colony gave almost per- 

 fect results during the past season. In this way when a poor queen 

 is taken away from a colony a good queen already organized in egg 

 laying is given to it. Thus the colony routine is not interrupted for 

 even the shortest length of time. This new queen which has been se- 

 lected as the best of several nuclei commences her enlarged efforts 

 without the least restrictions. The apiary management of this method 

 has proved its value in the effort to get good queens in every colony 

 with the least possible delay. 



