THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



It is only by carrying a thing to the ex- 

 treme that we are enabled to fully realize 

 and appreciate the thing itself. Six years 

 ago, during the height of a good honey 

 flow, I thought to rear some fine queens; 

 and, acting on the principle that if a little 

 was good, more would be better, I primed 

 about fifty cups, each with a lump of 

 royal jelly as large as a large pea. care- 

 fully placed a young larvae in each, and 

 gave them to four of my best colonies to 

 complete. Two days after I looked in 

 and was surprised to find that the food I 

 had put in had most all been removed, 

 and the cups were not drawn out as I had 

 expected to find them. This set me to 

 studying and observing, and the only 

 reasonable conclusion that I could arrive 

 at was that the food with which I had 

 primed the cups was not the proper thing 

 to feed young larval queens with; if it 

 had been, the bees would not have re- 

 moved it. Since then I have used both 

 primed and unprimed cups every year, 

 and watched closely the results, and the 

 bees almost invariably remove all or 

 nearly all of the jelly that I put in, ex- 

 cept when I use a very small amount 

 taken from natural cells the larvae of 

 which were not over thirty-six or forty- 

 eight hours old; and I am not sure that 

 they did not remove the most of that. In 

 these last mentioned cells the amount of 

 priming was so small that I could not 

 miss it. Again, these primed cells did 

 not have as much food deposited in them 

 during the first thirty-six to forty-eight 

 hours, nor were the cups drawn out as 

 uniformly as were those used without 

 priming other than that which was taken 

 with the larvae at the time the transfer 

 was made. 



It is claimed by our leading queen 

 breeders that both worker larvie and that 

 intended for queens are fed the same kind 

 of food for the first two days, but I have 

 not seen where any one has said that 

 larval queens fotir or iive days old were 

 fed the same kind of food that they were 

 when only one or two days old, nor that 

 the surplus food that was deposited dur- 



ing the first two days did not undergo a 

 chemical change in the next two or three 

 days. The facts as I have observed them 

 for six years furnish strong circumstantial 

 evidence that the food given the fourth 

 or fifth days is not the same as that given 

 the first and second days, or, that the sur- 

 plus that was deposited the first and 

 second days did undergo a chemical 

 change dunng the next three days, or 

 both. I do not know about this, and 

 would like to be enlightened. Who of 

 us would think that a healthy infant 

 taken from its mother's breast and fed on 

 "blue-John" or buttermilk, or even sweet 

 milk from the cow, would continue to be 

 healthy without nature remonstrating 

 against such violation of her laws. 



The larv£e used for queen rearing should 

 not be over twenty-four to forty-eight 

 hours old, the younger the better, but 

 it should be fed an abundance of food so 

 that it can be transferred with and on its 

 own bed of jelly without touching the 

 transferring ladle or the bottom of the 

 cell cu^ into which it is put. I am satis- 

 fied that right here is where manj' fail in 

 getting cells accepted. The liny larvae is 

 too delicate to survive after being roughly 

 handled or besmeared with its own food, 

 as that obstructs ihe pores through which 

 it breathes, and it smothers before the 

 bees can clean it up and get its bed 

 properly arranged in its new house. You 

 nmst be able to pick up the larvae proper- 

 ly at o?ie and the first trial, so you can 

 place it in a central position on its food 

 supply, and that without turning it over 

 or moving it. To do this right requires a 

 good eye, the right kind of light, a 

 ladle properly made and a good deal of 

 of practice. 



To get good larvae for transferring, 

 take a clean comb and place it in the 

 middle of your breeder's brood-nest one 

 to two days before you prepare your col- 

 ony or colonies for cell building; then, 

 when you prejjare your cell-builders, put 

 this comb between the combs of hatching 

 brood in the upper story, and you will 

 have a fine lot of brood just right for 



