THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



171 



I also reared queens over strong col- 

 onies in extracting supers that contained 

 no brood, and I could not see that it 

 made a particle of difference in the 

 quality of the queens or their accept- 

 ance of the cells. However, if young 

 brood is placed in these supers, the 

 bees will in some cases start queen 

 cells of their own, which must be de- 

 stroyed before having time to hatch ; 

 and when all the brood is sealed over 

 and the surrounding comb filled with 

 honey, these frames can be extracted 

 and the brood given to help weaker 

 colonies. 



BALLED QUEENS NO GOOD. 



Now just a word about balled queens. 

 I had three cases of virgin queens be- 



ing balled by entering the wrong hive, 

 and although I introduced them safely 

 to other or their own bees, they never 

 got mated or started laying. One of 

 them I left for over a month, and after 

 queen ceKs had been repeatedly de- 

 stroyed, I took a closer look and found 

 her. After removing her I introduced 

 another virgin, which mated and was 

 laying in a few days. From these ex- 

 periences I believe a queen balled by 

 strange bees, bent on her destruction, 

 even though for only a short time, is of 

 no more use, and the apiarist should let 

 them finish their job or do it for them, 

 and save time and vexation by replacing 

 her. 



St. Eugene, Ontario, Can., Jan. 24th, 

 1911. 



Breeding for Improvement. Some Simple Plans 

 for the Honey Producer. 



F. L. POLLOCK. 



'-■J^ ROBABLY there is no subject 

 Xl of so much importance, nor one 

 so generally neglected. The vet- 

 eran McEvoy gives it as his opinion 

 that nine-tenths of the queens in On- 

 tario should be destroyed, and bee- 

 keeping in Ontario is certainly as high- 

 ly developed as it is anywhere in Amer- 

 ica. If all queens died in the winter 

 and bee-keepers were all obliged to send 

 to the breeders for new ones every 

 spring, it is likely that it would be a 

 great benefit to honey production. 



A great many bee-keepers are de- 

 terred from systematically trying to 

 breed from their best colonies by an 

 exaggerated notion of the difficulty of 

 the work. The Doolittle or Alley plans, 

 however, are very easily learned ; and 

 if these prove too complex, there never 

 was a simpler or more effective sys- 

 tem than the one described by the edi- 

 tor of this journal in "Advanced Bee- 

 Culture." His plan is simply to take 



a frame of hatching eggs from his best 

 colony and to cut hoes in it, an inch 

 in diameter, beside the eggs. This 

 frame is put into a strong queenless 

 colony, and cells will be built round 

 every hole, probably a dozen or so cells 

 on the comb. When the cells are with- 

 in a day or so of hatching they can be 

 cut out and given to the colonies that 

 need them. The average beginner (at 

 queen rearing) will probably succeed 

 better with this plan than with the 

 sticks of cell cups. 



Anyone who wishes to take still less 

 trouble can requeen by dequeening his 

 worst colonies, say ha f the yard, and 

 cutting out cells after four days. Then 

 give each of these a frame containing 

 eggs from one of his superior colonies, 

 and the thing is done. 



TRAPPING THE DRONES. 



In any of these methods, the drones 

 should be trapped from all the unde- 



