ILLINOIS STATE, BEE-KEEPEES ASSOCIATION. 



77 



It is a question with me whether it 

 would be advisable to let them make their 

 own queens, or get queens for them so as 

 to have queens ready when they get into 

 shape to receive a queen. That is another 

 question that bothers me some yet. If 

 there is anybody here that is a little better 

 posted on that subject, I think it would be 

 interesting to most of us to know about 

 it. 



The President — One difficulty in your, 

 mode of handling them in this way is 

 that you are not improving your stock. 



Mr. Haan — No, that is the point that is 

 bothering me. 



The President — I ran across a scheme 

 for rearing queens last year that was worth 

 a good deal to me. Perhaps it will be 

 worth something to you. I have been 

 trying in the past to rear queens by 

 grafting cells, using the usual methods, and 

 have not been as successful as I would like 

 to be, because the bees often times failed 

 to draw the cells out, but this plan I find 

 effective in getting a large number of 

 cells started. The plan is this: Take a 

 fairly strong colonj'', remove all of the 

 unsealed brood, and if there are not bees 

 enough, shake some from the other colonies 

 being careful not to get the queens. 

 Capt brood may also be added, but be 

 careful not to include any unsealed cells. 

 Next secure a comb of unsealed brood 

 from your best breeding queen and place 

 it horionztaUy above the frames of the 

 prepared hive, leaving about an inch 

 between it and the frames below. It will 

 be found that a great bunch of bees will 

 gather on the under side and will draw out 

 a large number of cells, especially if they 

 are fed slowly at this time. It will be 

 found that a much larger number of cells 

 will be started than if the frame of brood 

 is placed vertically and they will be better 

 cells. However, they should not be allowed 

 to start too many as the ceUs are apt to be 

 insufficiently supplied with food. 



In this way queens may be raised from 

 our very best stock, and I believe that 

 it pays to do so. As an example. I had one 

 queen that was reared from best stock the 

 previous season and her colony stored a 

 surplus of one hundred pounds this year, 

 while the average for this yard was les'^ 

 than ten pounds. 



Mr. Stewart — "Where did they get it? 



The President— They didn't get it from 

 the others. 



Mr. Stewart— Are you sure cf that? I 

 think they are very systematic - robbers 

 (laughter), some of them. 



The Secretary — I might say a word in 

 regard to that style of queen rearing. I 



tried it out five years ago. I took an 

 ordinary shallow super and cut it right in 

 two. It made a little over a two-inch rim 

 and I took some pieces of tin and run them 

 crosswise and laid my comb on top of that 

 for my bees to work on, then I had about 

 two inches of space under there. That will 

 give you all kinds of space and everything 

 in the clear. 



The way I prepared my colonj' was 

 spmething like this: I went through it 

 and took .dl the brood away and filled up 

 the hive with empty combs and left the 

 queen. I left them that way for about a 

 week — let's see — no, ten days, nine or ten 

 days — that wqs the idea, putting the 

 sealed brood above. I went in there in 

 nine days and the brood absolutely would 

 be all sealed in the upper hive. The queen 

 would be laying heavily below. You take 

 out your ten combs of unsealed brood and 

 put your sealed brood back below and your 

 comb of larva for queenrearing. You have 

 got a tremendous force of nursing bees and 

 nothing to feed but your queens above. 

 They ^ill build out 20 to 50 cells as pretty 

 as you ever saw. 



Mr. Haan — Now, Kir. President, in lay- 

 ing a frame horif:ontalIy over a colony of 

 bees, you must cut out certain cells there, 

 don't you, in order to make room for the 

 larger bi^ed queen cells? 



The Secretary' — If you want to, yon can 

 go over it after the cells are started, and 

 wherever you find two cells built so close 

 together that you can't cut them out with- 

 out destroying one; destroy one right there. 

 The bees will not build all those out; you 

 have got twenty-five cells on every square 

 inch of comb you put in there, they will 

 bunch those cells up, cometimes three and 

 four in a bunch, so you can't cut them 

 out. You can see as soon as those cells 

 are started what you can save. 



Mr. Stewart — I thought you bought ajl 

 your queens. 



The Secretary — I do now. This was 

 four or five j'ears ago. 



Mr. Wheeler — Mr. Chairman, I have 

 never agreed with this convention or any 

 other convention on the queen question. 

 I do not to-day. I am old-fashioned and 

 curious, and all that kind of thing, but I 

 really think that the queen rearing busi- 

 ness has been run into the ground. I 

 have found in the spring, by carefully 

 watching and experimenting, that it doesn't 

 depend so much on the breed of the queen 

 and the color of the queen, as it does on the 

 strength of the colony. In the spring 

 when I am clipping, going through my 

 combs, lots of times I lose some of the 

 queens from the very strongest colonies. It 



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