lo Dec, 191 2.] Bee-keeping in Victoria. .759 



an indication that conditions are favourable when the voung larvae are 

 surrounded by a plentiful supply of pure white food. The colony selected 

 for raising cells from the eggs or larvae of the chosen breeding queen 

 should be strong, particularly in nurse bees. 



The " Doolittle " method 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 same advantage can be obtained by the " Alley " method without 

 disturbing the young 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 any numbers. 



There is yet another impulse under which bees will raise good cells ; 

 the super.seding impulse. When a queen is in her third season, and long 

 before the apiarist can notice any decline in her prolificness, the bees usually 

 prepare to supersede her by raising one or more queen-cells. They do this 

 at a time when the conditions are most favourable ; they are usually better 



r. COMB CUT FOR QUEEN RAISING. 



judges of this than their owner, excepting in the case of a queen suddenly 

 failing from disease or accident. If the bees are inclined to swarm there 

 may be a swarm issuing before or after the cell or first cell hatches 

 Where the bees are less inclined, the virgin queen on emerging from her 

 cell will destroy all other cells but will take no notice of the remaining 

 old queen, her mother. 



The number of cells raised under the superseding impulse is not large 

 — from one to three usually ; but they are invariably fine large cells pro- 

 ducing splendid queens. For a number of years I have obtained some of 

 my best queens in this way. but as the number is limited I could not get 

 suflficient, till I made use of the superseding impulse for raising them 

 from larvae supplied repeatedly to the superseding colonies from selected 

 breeding queens. For this purpose it is necessary to know the ages of all 

 queens. Colonies having queens in their third year are examined periodic- 

 ally when conditions are favourable. If there are indications of super- 

 seding, the cells are removed and larvae from the breeding queen, over 

 which cell cups have previously been started by temporarily queenless bees, 

 are given in place of those removed. The colony should naturally be 

 populous and thriving enough to raise good cells. If the queens which 

 are not up to standard are replaced every year irrespective of age, these 

 three-year-olds are those which passed all the musters and there will be no 

 lack of the necessarv condition. Should none of the superseding colonies 



