10 THE REARING OF QUEEN BEES. 



(2) Supersedure. — When a queen on account of age or other cause 

 ceases to lay eggs enough to keep up the strength of the colon}^, the 

 workers build queen cells and rear queens. When the first one of 

 these emerges, an encounter ensues between the young queen and the 

 old one, and almost invariably the latter is killed. 



(3) Queenlessness. — It may happen that the queen in a colony is killed, 

 and in that case, if there are young larva? in the combs, the workers 

 will rear queens, one of which later becomes the mother of the colony. 

 While in nature this is probabl}^ a more rare condition than is either 

 of the two preceding, it is a normal and natural circumstance under 

 which queens are reared. 



In the rearing of queens b}^ the so-called artificial methods it is 

 necessary to follow rather closel}' one of the three natural conditions. 

 As will be shown later, queens can be reared in colonies with a lay- 

 ing queen, provided a perforated zinc sheet be used to prevent the 

 latter from tearing down the cells, but in such cases we probably 

 approach the swarming condition. 



In practice the bee keeper can, if he wishes, take queens from nor- 

 mall}^ constructed cells. By making a colony queenless a considerable 

 number of these will be reared, and by very careful watching almost 

 all of them can be captured and caged before they kill each other or 

 destroy other queen cells. To do this, however, it is necessary to 

 look over the entire colony several times a day for several days, and 

 thus it is far from a time-saving method. The plan is not to be recom- 

 mended except where it is impossible to use some of the better methods. 

 In the same way queens emerging from cells built in swarming time 

 or during supersedure may be captured. There are, however, better 

 methods of queen rearing; for, by modern appliances, the work is not 

 only made much more simple, but also gives better results. A descrip- 

 tion of these methods may seem rather complicated to one who has 

 not tried them, but the manipulation is easily learned, and after a 

 brief acquaintance with the appliances the whole subject of queen 

 rearing becomes very simple. 



ARTIFICIAL aUEEN REARING. 



The methods to be described here are not those of any one system, 

 but are the result of many investigations in this field. It is impossible 

 to give credit to every one who has offered valuable suggestions on 

 this subject, and no such attempt will be made; for it is often difficult 

 to learn with certainty who first used and recommended any particular 

 plan. The bee-keeping journals are full of valuable hints on this 

 work, and methods long ago in use are repeatedly rediscovered and 

 given as new. To prevent any injustice, then, it seems best to avoid 

 giving credit in all cases, except where there is no doubt as to the 

 origin of the plan. The author disclaims all credit of originality in 



