24 THE REARING OF QUEEN BEES. 



be in the mating colon}^ more than four or Aa'c da3'8. If a queen cell 

 be placed in a mating colon}' it means that for a da}^ or two before the 

 queen emerges, and for at least five daj'S before she mates, the colony 

 is unproductive; and commercial queen breeders can not afford such a 

 loss. Such a method of introduction is easier, it is true, but certainly 

 is not economical. In introducing from a nurser\" it sometimes hap- 

 pens that queens are killed, but even this loss is not great enough to 

 justify the method of introducing cells, especially since queens from 

 cells are sometimes rejected also. 



The practice of putting a little hone}^ on the tip of the queen cell 

 when in a nursery, so that the emerging queen may have something to 

 eat while gnawing her way out is not necessary, and has, when prac- 

 ticed, sometimes led to the death of the queen by suffocation. 



MATING aUEENS. 



The best method of mating queens has perhaps been more discussed 

 by bee keepers than any other phase ox queen rearing, the bone of 

 contention being the size of the colony which shall be used in mating. 



Some bee keepers insist that queens should be mated only in full 

 colonies, while others go to the opposite extreme and claim that only 

 a handful of bees are necessary to care for a queen during this period 

 of her life. 



COMPARISON OF DIFFERENT SIZES OF BOXES. 



A comparison of the cost of the two methods will help to solve the 

 difficulty, for l)ee keeping is a business proposition, and bee keepers 

 desire the most return for the least expenditure of either time or 

 money. Mating in a colony means that that colon}^ is without anj" 

 new brood for about a week; and since during the summer season the 

 life of the average worker is about six weeks, the loss resulting is 

 about equal to one-sixth the cost of the colony used. This is to some 

 extent made up l)y the increased activity in brood rearing after such 

 a period of rest; but at any rate a colony can make no increase in size 

 when queens are being mated, and there is almost alwa3"s a loss. From 

 this standpoint, then, the smaller the colony, the cheaper this part of 

 the rearing will be; and if this were the only point to be considered 

 there could be but one answer to the question. 



The time spent in manipulation is an important item, especially 

 where large numbers of queens are to be reared. It is more difficult 

 to introduce a queen into a large colon}^ than into a small one, and 

 this is a factor to be considered, since the chances for occasional losses 

 of queens which may result in considerable loss of time are much 

 reduced bj" the use of small colonies. In looking over mating colonies 

 to see whether the queen is laying, there is everything to be said in 

 iavor of the small colon}' or "'nucleus.'" There is less comb area to 



