2l8 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



on the part of the queen to deposit as 

 many eggs in such places as the condi- 

 tion of the colony and the strength of the 

 honey flow would indicate there should 

 be, which leads th*; bees to believe that 

 their queen is failing, and thus arouses 

 the superseding impulse; a crowded con- 

 dition of the hive, together with a honey 

 flow, which makes the bees wish to ex- 

 pand their business, consequently the 

 swarming impulse is brought about; or 

 the sudden loss of the queen. This last 

 is only nature's safety-valve to meet ex- 

 treme emergencies; and it was intended 

 by the Creator that queens should be 

 reared under this last named condition 

 only as a last resort. 



There is no question in my mind re- 

 garding the superiority of queens reared 

 under the superseding or swarming im- 

 pulse. I am sure of it; and, as colonies 

 can be regulated with more certainty, and 

 worked more profitably, when . rearing 

 queens under the superseding impulse, I 

 will confine myself for the present to tell- 

 ing how to bring about that impulse. 



When the weather is warm, and honey 

 is coming in to meet all daily demands, 

 with a little to spare, I take a sirong, two- 

 story colony, preferably with an old 

 qtieen, having six to ten frames of brcod, 

 most of which should be sealed, fill the 

 lower story with brood, if the colony has 

 not enough brood of its own, go to other 

 colonies and draw frames of capped brood, 

 see that the queen is in the lower story, 

 and then put on a queen-excluding zinc, 

 with the second story on top of that. Now 

 put two frames of haichivg brood, and 

 one frame containing eggs and young 

 larvae, in the middle of the second story 

 (if the colony has not got it you will have 

 to get ihis from other colonies), close the 

 hive and let it remain three days. If 

 honey is not coming in plentifully, a pint 

 of warm syrup should be fed late every 

 evening. I go to the hives the third or 

 fourth day, and nearly always find queen 

 cups started in the second story, and, 

 judging from experience, I imagine the 

 bees are reasoning and complaining some- 



thing like this: "What can be the mat- 

 ter with mother queen? Here is this 

 comb of young brood, with the last egg 

 just hatched, Net she has not laid an egg 

 in it for three days; and here are these 

 combs of brood nearly all hatched out, 

 and we have cleaned out the cells, but 

 she ha«j not laid in any of them. Plenty 

 of honey coming in, and we are not 

 crowded, either for breeding room or with 

 hone} . She must be failing, or she 

 would not have stepped la3-ing here." 



I now go and stock fifteen or twenty 

 cups with young V)rood from my best 

 breeder, and place them on either side of 

 the comb containing the young larvae, in 

 the second story, and, judging by the 

 way the bees usually accept them, and 

 complete the cells, I interpret their views 

 like this: "That is just what I thought. 

 Mother is failing, and has laid in these 

 cell-cups and we will have to raise a 

 qiieen to take her place. Here are more 

 than we need, but that does not matter." 

 Now \ou may ask why would they not 

 build queen cells on the young larvae that 

 were in the comb above the zinc? Simply 

 because they were wailing for their sup- 

 posed failing mother to lay in the queen 

 cups, w'hicli she would do if she cverei&\\- 

 'ng, and there were any queen cups 

 available. See? How identical it is with 

 natural superseding. 



I have observed closely for several 

 3'ears and have never seen, nor been able 

 to persuade bees to con.struct, queen cells 

 over worker brood while there were 

 available queen cups in the brood-nest, 

 and their accepted queen was at liberty in 

 any part of the hive. 



Wlien queen cells are constructed nat- 

 urally in any normal colony it requires 

 the mutual consent of the bees and the 

 queen. The first being on the part of the 

 bees — party of the first ])art — caused by 

 the conditions in the hive and the 

 strength of the honey flow, when they 

 (the bees) will construct queen cups; and 

 second on the part of the queen when she 

 will la}- in the cups prepared by the bees; 

 next, the bees carry out their part by 



