146 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



Doolittle in "Scientific Queen Rearing" 

 discusses that peculiarity of the bees 

 which leads them to think themselves 

 queenless when nursing brood over a 

 queen-right colony with an excluder be- 

 tween the brood-nest and the super. He 

 also details at some length the possibility 

 of rearing queens by this method. The 

 writer claims no originality for the use of 

 a method which is generally known to 

 queen breepers. Just what sort of physi- 

 cal, mental or psychological change comes 

 over the bees to delude them into the no- 

 tion that they are queenless under such 

 conditions is one of the mysteries for fu- 

 ture solution and not a topic for present 

 discussion. When the underlying princi- 

 ple which governs this strange departure 

 from normal bee-life is understood, we 

 will know more than we do now — and, 

 possibly, something which will be greatly 

 to our advantage. 



It has always been my belief that the 

 phenomena of Nature, and especially those 

 of the hive, all have reasons for their 

 manifestation; their belief leads to an- 

 other, viz., that speculative investigation 

 into the unaccountable things done by the 

 bees is not to be despised. 



Probably most bee keepers know that 

 if frames containing eggs or unsealed 

 brood are placed in art upper story over a 

 queen excluding zinc, that the bees will 

 not only go up and care for the brood, but 

 will in many cases build queen cells on 

 the frames in the upper story. Such cells 

 appear to differ in no way from those 

 built otherwise, and in my experience 

 have produced good queens where they 

 have been given proper protection from 

 cold. While this plan is not feasible for 

 rearing large numbers of queens com- 

 mercially, it is so simple that it may be 

 practised by the small bee keeper for the 

 production of a limited number of queens. 



First prepare the super, using a hive 

 body with thin division boards at each 

 side, making two, one-frame compart- 

 ments. Cover the bottom of the center 

 portion with queen excluding zinc and the 

 narrow side compartments with common 



window screen wire so that no bees can 

 pass from these small upper compart- 

 ments into the brood-nest below. At the 

 back end of each small compartment, at 

 the side of the hive, bore a quarter-inch 

 flight hole and cover it with a wooden 

 button of thin stuff which swings freely 

 on a small nail. I prefer to make these 

 " entrance closers'" with a piece of ex- 

 cluding metal inserted so that passage is 

 allowed for only one bee when the closer 

 is properly placed. This prevents rob- 

 bing. When turned a trifle more it closes 

 the entrance entirely and still permits 

 some ventilation. These small entrance 

 closing blocks are exceedingly handy for 

 small nucleus boxes and a supply should 

 be kept on hand. 



The top of this queen-rearing super 

 should be covered with eanmeled cloth 

 cut in three pieces and tacked to the top 

 of the partitions so that either section of 

 the super may have the covering turned 

 back and its contents examined without 

 dislurbing the others. This practically 

 eliminates any necessity for the smoker 

 or the veil, a great convenience in queen- 

 rearing. More than two divisions can be 

 made if desired, but we have found it 

 best to maintain a cluster of five or six 

 frames of brood in the center where pos- 

 sible. 



PREPARING THE COLONY. 



Inasmuch as a considerable quantity of 

 brood is required for this operation it is 

 best to prepare the colonies set apart for 

 this purpose by making them two-story, 

 or as nearly so as possible, and getting 

 an abundance of brood. Brood may be 

 taken from other colonies for this purpose 

 and if it is desired to rear queens from 

 the brood of any particular queen, these 

 brood-frames may be used for that pur- 

 pose, being careful, of course, to take no 

 strange bees into the queen-rearing hive. 

 This preliminary preparation is equally 

 important for another purpose, viz , that 

 of securing an abundance of young bees 

 for cell feeding and incubation. 



It should always be remembered that 

 young bees are requited in numbers for 



