July, 1908. 



'^American Hee Journal 



How to Rear Better Queens 



HV A. W. YATES. 



So many different methods of queen- 

 rearing are expounded that no wonder 

 the beginner is confused in trying to 

 follow them, but every intelligent person 

 keeping bees, should know how at least 

 to rear enough queens for himself, and 

 let no stone go unturned until he has 

 mastered the situation. 



The methods in use half a century 

 ago are still in vogue, with more or less 

 variation, and the up-to-date breeder, as 

 well as the novice, should not overlook 

 anything to shorten his work or improve 

 his bees, and whatever system is adopt- 

 ed, it must perfectly harmonize with 

 the natural instinct of the bees if he 

 expects improvement. 



Bee-keeping is carried on much dif- 

 ferently in these modern times from 

 what it was 50 years ago, when any old 

 bo.\ or tub answered as a bee-hive, and 

 all young swarms, because the honey 

 and comb was new and white, were 

 "taken up" in the fall. By this method 

 the old queens were killed and the 

 young ones were left for the next sea- 

 son. Today, with our modern hives, all 

 are kept Over, both j'oung and old, until 

 they die of old age, and no wonder one 

 colony gives us a large surplus while 

 the other has to be fed to survive the 

 winter, if survive it does. 



All live stock has its time of matur- 

 ity and usefulness, and when that be- 

 .gins to fail, the first thing we do is to 

 get rid of it for younger stock. "It is a 

 poor shoe that won't fit both feet," and 

 if we expect to succeed we must see that 

 our working stock is young and vigor- 

 ous. 



Our first requirement will be a breed- 

 er or mother queen, and as she is to be 

 the foundation of the apiary, we must 

 see that she is as good as money can 

 buy. Money spent for a queen because 

 she is cheap, is thrown away, especially 

 so for this purpose. If honey is desired 

 she must be strong and prolific, and her 

 offspring large and vigorous, working 

 early and late. We like beautiful bees 

 if we can have them just as well as not, 

 but should not sacrifice anything for 

 beauty. 



About April i, 1906, I received a doz- 

 en queens from a breeder in the South. 

 All were very handsome goldens, and 

 reared, as I found out afterwards, in 

 queenless colonies, and whether from 

 the manner of rearing or weakness in 

 the stock by inbreeding for color, I 

 do not know, but they were all dead 

 except 2 within 2 months, and not one 

 was able to build up a good colony. 



I use queens of my own importation 

 from the North of Italy for nearly all 

 mv breeding, that I have had in my yard 

 for a year or more, and thoroughly 

 tested. But plenty of nome-bred ones 

 can be easily found, probably just as 

 good, and the severe strain on an im- 

 ported queen during passage is avoided. 

 Out of the 6 that I imported last season 

 the last one arrived with only one live 

 bee in the cage for companj', and prob- 

 ably all would have been dead in a few 

 hours more. 



The relation of the breeding queen to 

 the rest of the colonies in the yard is 

 such that what characteristics she shows. 



whether good or bad, in the bees of 

 her own colony, we must expect to see 

 transmitted to the others, and we must 

 breed by selection, so as to retain these 

 good traits and discourage bad ones as 

 much as possible. 



There are several methods of getting 

 queen-cells started, most of which are 

 by queenless colonies, and ^ome breed- 

 ers rear by this system also, but in my 

 opinion this accounts for a good many 

 short-lived queens, and unless reared 

 in the flush of the season, when royal 

 feed for the young in the larval state 

 is plenty, I would not care for them. 

 The best cells we see in a hive are 

 those built at swarming-time, and in 

 superseding. Both are built with a 

 queen in the colony, and queens hatched 

 from such cells are seldom anything 

 but the best. If therefore, we want 

 this class of queens we must do what 

 we can to bring about one or the other 

 of these conditions, for this is Nature's 

 way and we must adhere to it. After 

 we have a colony queenless 6 or 8 hours 

 and have taken their brood away, give 

 them a frame of brood from the breed- 

 er, and in 24 hours more there will 

 be probably 20 cells started — enough for 

 an ordinary colony to finish. This 

 frame of started cells should then be 

 taken away and the queen introduced; 

 otherwise she would be killed like a 

 stranger. 



It is a well-known fact that if a hive 

 be so constructed that the queen can not 

 have access to all- parts, and if some 

 eggs and brood be placed in such parts, 

 the bees often build queen-cells on it, 

 and such cells are natural supersedure 

 cells. Now if we can divide the brood- 

 chamber with queen-excluding zinc, with 

 the queen on one side and the frame 

 of started cells on the other, we have 

 things just as we want them, and the 

 bees will finish such cells to perfection. 

 Such cells when hatched, if taken and 

 examined as soon as the queen emerges, 

 will be found still to have royal jelly 

 left, showing that the larvte were not 

 stinted. A strong colony with 2 brood- 

 chambers and an excluder between an- 

 swers the same purpose, and nothing 

 but a strong, large colony should be 

 used in queen-rearing anyway. This 

 I think is as good a system to rear 

 first-class queens as there is, and fol- 

 lows the natural tendency of the bees 

 to build queen-cells when otherwise they 

 would not do so. No colony is queenless 

 but a short time in starting the cells, 

 and we have nothing to do to interfere 

 with the cell-building colony until 10 

 days from the start, when the cells 

 should be separated and one given to 

 each full colony or nucleus, as the 

 case may be. 



Any one who would like to see the 

 difference between queens hatched in 

 this manner and by queenless bees 

 should try it and see. A short time 

 ago I received a letter from a man that 

 had reared a few queens, and he com- 

 plained about their being small and 

 dark, and looked like 30 cents — so 

 small, in fact, that they would go 

 through the Root-Tinker zinc. He 

 reared them in a colony without a queen, 

 but since he has tried this system he is 

 better satisfied and has no more trouble. 



Another thing : I have noticed such 

 queens often fail to mate, for some 



reason, and if not lost in their mating 

 flights will, after a short time, go to- 

 laying drone-eggs. If these directions 

 are followed carefully, the mere novice 

 can rear his own queens, and as good as 

 money can buy; and those reared at 

 home, not shipped through the mail, are 

 undoubtedly the better. A good many 

 complaints of poor queens could, if pos- 

 sible, be traced to rough handling ir» 

 the mails. 



There are several modifications of 

 this system, but none better. Of course 

 the brood to start the cells should not 

 be over 6 to 10 hours old, or so small 

 as to be difficult to see without a glass. 

 I use colonies 2 and 3 stories high, and 

 sometimes with 2 or more queens, for 

 cell-building, and the more bees I can 

 have the better. Queens reared in weak 

 colonies or nuclei are likely to be poorly 

 fed and unprotected from cold, usually 

 look dark and small, and seldom are 

 worth anything. They are only a detri- 

 ment to the colonies they occupy, unless 

 used in the plural queen-system, and I 

 would rather have one good queen in a 

 hive than a dozen poor ones. We hear 

 a good deal about this 2-queen busi- 

 ness, but like all other fads, it is liable 

 to die out shortly, except in cases of 

 queen-rearing or something of a kindred' 

 nature. Bees were created with one 

 queen to the colony, and we have yet 

 to hear of the man who has beaten 

 "Dame Nature." 



Hartford, Conn. 



Esperanto Grammars Free 



We have received the following com- 

 munication, which is published for the 

 reason that this new language appeals 

 strongly to those who have the interest 

 of humanity at heart, and especially to- 

 such as believe in the ultimate victory 

 of peace, brotherhood and good-will 

 among mankind. In Europe, Esperanto 

 has already attained immense popularity 

 in all classes and conditions of life : 



Editor American Bee Journal — 



Notwithstanding the great amount of 

 publicity which has been given to Es- 

 peranto, the international language, I 

 find that' at this time not more than 

 one-tenth of the people of the United 

 States have even a vague idea of its 

 purpose and scope, and perhaps not one 

 one in a hundred has a reasonably defi- 

 nite conception of it. As a sort of coun- 

 ter-irritant to the irresponsible criticism 

 which is occasionally circulated by the 

 uninformed, I have printed for a free 

 distribution a second edition of 100,000 

 copies of a small primer, " Elements 

 of Esperanto," setting forth the gram- 

 mar, word-construction and purpose of 

 the language, and will mail a copy to 

 any person who requests it, sending 

 stamp for postage. While you may not 

 be personally interested, there are thou- 

 sands of your readers to whom this 

 movement for an international auxiliary 

 language, which now covers every coun- 

 try on earth, will appeal as something 

 more than a fad, and they would appre- 

 ciate your giving space to this letter. 



Cordially yours, 



Arthur Baker, 

 Editor Amerika Esperantisto. 

 1239 ^lichigan Avenue, Chicago, 111. 



