170 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



eral extracting supers, along with a 

 few frames of brood taken from be- 

 low ; and the bees and young queen 

 were given an entrance at the back of 

 the hive, by raising its cover and insert- 

 ing an end bar or piece of wood, so as 

 to give a half-inch entrance under the 

 quilt and cover. 



As soon as these were mated and lay- 

 ing I used them with capped brood and 

 a frame of honey for increase. 



GETTING THE CELLS STARTED. 



Later I struck on a much easier plan 

 of getting cells started. After attach- 

 ing the cells to the removable bar, and 

 putting a drop of honey in each one, 

 they were placed in the top story of a 

 strong colony for a couple of hours, 

 and the bees given time to polish them 

 up. If left longer than two or three 

 hours the bees will spoil the cells by 

 drawing them out into comb and build- 

 ing about them. By having the bees 

 polish the cells before transferring the 

 larvae, I found I could get as many 

 accepted without the use of royal jelly. 



TRANSFERRING THE LARVAE. 



During the honey flow the larvae 

 fairly swim in the milky fluid, and by 

 using a small toothpick-shaped piece of 

 maple wood, smooth and bent spoon- 

 shaped, I could pick up the larvae, pap 

 and all, and found that the bees would 

 accept and finish these as readily as 

 when royal jelly was used, and without 

 previously shaking them into a swarm 

 box. 



GRAFTING THE CELLS. 



When grafting the cells I cut out a 

 piece of comb containing the youngest 

 larvae and shaved the cells down so as 

 to more easily get at them. By close 

 observation I found that the largest 

 and most beautiful queens were raised 

 from larvae that was just hatched from 

 the eggs when transferred, and I imag- 

 ine that their work looked better, too, 

 when they began laying, although there 



was a larger per cent of the larger 

 queens lost in mating, but I would 

 hardly say that their size had anything 

 to do with that. 



PRODUCES GOOD QUEENS. 



A man who has the time and wants 

 to raise his own queens can secure as 

 good as he can buy, providing he has 

 good stock to start with. 



In an extracting yard the colonies can 

 be re-qu.eened in this way, without the 

 delay of cage or candy methods, or the 

 loss of one pound of honey. When the 

 young queen has mated and started lay- 

 ing, the old queen in the lower story 

 is removed and the bees and young 

 queen from the super shaken at the 

 entrance ; or, if increase is wanted, the 

 young queen is left at the old stand 

 and the old queen and brood-nest re- 

 moved to another part of the yard, 

 where, if the old queen is not a good 

 one, she can easily be found and re- 

 moved, and a young queen, virgin, or 

 ripe cell given. If this is done at the 

 close of the basswood flow both colo- 

 nies will be as strong in bees as if 

 only the old queen had been left, and 

 only young bees will go into winter 

 quarters, as old bees seem to use them- 

 selves up pretty fast in raising and car- 

 ing for brood at that time of the year. 

 Some colonies of black bees that I 

 treated so the first of August (Italian- 

 ized), did not show a single black bee 

 in October," and were very strong in 

 yellow bees. 



NO SWARMING. 



I raised and had queens mated over 

 almost every strong colony in the yard, 

 and in no case was it the cause of a 

 swarm issuing, either with the old queen 

 or with the virgin on her mating flight. 

 Queens can be raised by this method 

 vv'ithout the extra expense of baby 

 nuclei, or anything else that one can- 

 not prepare himself outside of the ordi- 

 nary frames and extracting supers. 



