758 Journal of Agriculture , Victoria. [10 Dec, 1912. 



BEE-KEEPING IN VICTORIA. 



{Continued from page 653.) 



F. R. Beuhne, Bee Expert. 



X.— THE REARING OF QUEEN BEES. 



The selection of a queen from which to Ijreed for the purpose of super- 

 seding old or; inferior queens, or the queens oif colonies showing a piredisr 

 position to disease, viciousness or some other undesirable trait, is not only 

 of the greatest importance but also a most difficult problem. 



It is upon the prolificness of the queen and the longevity and \igour of 

 her worker progeny that the larger or smaller amount of surplus honey 

 depends; but the most prolific queen is not necessarily the best to breed 

 from. Experience has shown that the queen progeny of an exceedingly pro- 

 lific queen rarely equal their mother ; when they do, they produce workers 

 which are constitutionally delicate, and these never yield the amount ot 

 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 by the relatively large number of old field bees, 

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

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

 producing short-lived workers the position is reversed. Many of the bees 

 ii; 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-laying, and attend the queen. As the number 

 of field bees bringing in honey is little more than sufficient to supply what 

 is needed for immediate consumption, the colony will show a very large 

 amount of brood in all stages right through the season but will store less 

 honey 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 colony 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 purity 

 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 may result when queens are raised 

 under unfavourable conditions, no matter how suitable the mother queen 

 is. There are many different methods of raising queens and good queens 

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

 difficulty is, that many bee-keepers fail to oKserve when conditions are 

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

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

 honey flow is not the best time for queen rearing, particularly when it 

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

 coming in, and yet the right conditions may not exist, even though atmos 

 pheric conditions appear favourable. This is probably owing to some 

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



