February, 191C. 



American ^ee Journal 



for this purpose. We now have a box 

 or frame, open at top and bottom, into 

 which a brood-frame will exactly lit 

 when lying Hat upon its side, with the 

 three-inch space beneath the lower sur- 

 face of the comb. 



We use two colonies in queen-rear- 

 ing. One which we call the Rearing 

 colony feeds the young larv;e. From 

 the other we obtain the eggs. This 

 latter colony we call the Breeder, and 

 it is chosen for trueness to type, record 

 of honey produced, color of bees, and 

 excellence of queen. As a matter of 

 fact, and a circumstance that is hard 

 to explain, we have found the best 

 Rearing colonies to be those that are 

 more or less hybridized. They seem 

 to be moie prolific, make larger and 

 more perfect queen-cells than bees of 

 purer strain, and also rear cells in 

 greater number. 



We go to our Rearing colony, which 

 has been strengthened in February by 

 giving it sealed brood from other colo- 

 nies. (You cannot have your Rearing 

 colony too strong.) We take the 

 queen out, some brood and bees, and 

 make another colony. In the queen- 

 less colony, which is the important 

 one, we leave one frame with unsealed 

 brood and are very careful that it has 

 several frames containing fresh pollen, 

 even if we have to take pollen from 

 other colonies in the apiary. We keep 

 the frame of unsealed brood in the 

 middle of the hive, frames of pollen on 

 each side of this brood frame, and fill 

 up with frames full of honey. 



The new colony or nucleus that has 

 been made with the queen from the 

 Rearing colony, is not given too much 

 brood at once as some of the field bees 

 return to the old stand and there is 

 likely to be chilled brood during cold 

 nights. The remainder of the brood, 

 if too much to put with the queen, we 

 divide among other colonies and give 

 it back gradually to the queen, if de- 

 sired. After making the Rearing col- 

 ony queenless, our Breeding colony — 

 that is the colony containing the queen 

 from whose eggs we desire to rear our 

 young queens — is given a nice empty, 

 dry, clean, worker comb in the center 

 of the brood-nest. At both sides of 

 this comb should be frames containing 

 unsealed larvae and eggs. The next 

 day we see whether the queen has oc- 

 cupied this new comb. Four days after 

 finding the first eggs in the empty 

 comb it is taken out and the ends of 

 the top-bars sawed off so that the 

 frame will fit into the already prepared 

 rim or box described above. 



With a blunt tool or flattened stick 

 we scrape away the top rows of cells 

 clean down to the midrib of this comb, 

 for about an inch to an inch-and-a-half 

 parallel with the top-bar of the frame. 

 We leave one row of cells. We then 

 rub off or scrape again all the cells 

 down to the midrib of the next four 

 rows of cells and again leave an un- 

 damaged row of cells. We repeat this 

 until the bottom-bar is reached. There 

 will then be several rows of cells, con- 

 taining eggs, about an inch to an inch- 

 and-a-half apart, running lengthwise of 

 the comb with bare places or strips be- 

 tween, down to the bottom of the 

 frame. Be very careful in rubbing out 

 the cells not to injure or rub through 

 the midrib because if you do the bees 

 will gnaw into the other side of the 



comb. Now we go crosswise of these 

 rows of cells and destroy again all ex- 

 cept every fourth or fifth cell in the row. 

 The surface of this comb, on one side, 

 will then have the appearance of a 

 checker board, with individual cells 

 containing eggs, about an inch to an 

 inch-and-a-half apart in every direc- 

 tion. If you look closely while prepar- 

 ing the frame in this way you will find 

 that a great many of the eggs have just 

 begun to hatch. 



Before placing the frame thus pre- 

 pared into your Rearing colony take 

 the frame of unsealed brood away from 

 them, so that for a few hours at least they 

 will be in distress at being broodless. 

 Place an empty super on the Rearing 

 colony and put the rim containing the 

 frames of eggs in the super with the 

 prepared side hanging down over the 

 brood-chamber. These cells will hang 

 vertically over the top-bars about three 

 inches above the top of the frames. 

 Cover the colony well to conserve the 

 warm of the cluster. We always put a 

 cloth cover snugly over the frame box 

 and another cloth packed down closely 

 over the top of the uncovered frames 

 so that the bees cannot go up except- 

 ing into the space containing the cells 

 thus prepared. 



These coverings prevent the bees 

 from gnawing through the open spaces 

 in the comb where the cells may have 

 been scraped off too closely and also 

 assist in keeping the brood-chamber 

 warm for the work of the bees in e.x- 

 tending the cells and rearing the young 

 queens. The bees start right away to 

 work and draw t)ut dozens and dozens 

 of the finest queen-cells imaginable. 



About ten days after we put the 

 frame in our Rearing colony the cells 

 can be disposed of as desired for re- 

 queening or increase. By this method 

 the cells are all of the same age, per- 

 fectly ripe and clean so that you need 

 no cell protector provided you can use 

 the young queens immediately. Where 

 we cannot use the cells at once we use 

 the Rauchfuss cages and nursery 

 frames such as are listed in supply cata- 

 logs. In every cage we put sugar and 

 honey and a number of nurse bees. 



At the time we take out the frame of 

 brood which we originally left in the 

 Rearing colony when it was made 

 queenless, we examine theother combs 

 carefully to see if there may not already 

 be queen-cells started elsewhere in the 

 hive. We had two cases in our yards 

 where the bees transferred larvE or 

 eggs (which we do not know), and we 

 lost in the first case our batch of cells 

 because a young queen hatched four 

 days before they were ready. The bees 

 will also sometimes transfer larva; or 

 eggs from the prepared frame after we 

 have put it into the Rearing colony, but 

 we have never found any particular 

 harm done in this case because the 

 queens thus reared are of the same age 

 as those hanging in our queen-rearing 

 frame. 



When we lift the queen-rearing frame 

 out, the first day or two after it is put 

 on the Rearing colony, we mark two of 

 the more advanced cells. After ten 

 days, one of these marked cells is cut 

 open and we know exactly when the 

 batch of young queens will commence 

 to hatch. This is a practice which we 

 always follow. We have had cases 

 even at the 10th day (which could be 



but the 14th day from the laying of the 

 egg), where the queen was ready to 

 hatch and would crawl out fully de- 

 veloped. Should this happen, the vir- 

 gin queen can be introduced into any 

 colony without any precaution. Our 

 experience is that, it we have cold 

 weather, queens will hatch a little later, 

 and sometimes in warm weather they 

 will hatch a little earlier, than the time 

 given in the bee books. 



If you make a colony queenless for 

 the purpose of requeening with a queen 

 of their own rearing, do not ever use 

 the cells which the bees start right 

 away or the one which is first sealed. 

 We destroy those cells no matter how 

 nice they look. The reason is not far 

 to seek. When the bees find themselves 

 suddenly queenless they sometimes use 

 larvs already too old to make good 

 queens. When a colony is made queen- 

 less and the bees determine to rear a 

 queen they are naturally in a great 

 hurry for it and may rear the queen 

 from a larva that has been hatched for 

 a day or two. It is obvious that this 

 queen has not received royal jelly from 

 the moment that the egg hatched and 

 therefore will not make as good a 

 queen as one that is given proper food 

 from the instant it came out of the egg 

 and when the bees have been preparing 

 for it. For this reason our belief is 

 that the first cells that are reared by 

 the bees in the case of a queenless 

 colony should be destroyed and only 

 those permitted to hatch which were 

 built over eggsthathad not yet hatched 

 at the time the bees found themselves 

 queenless. These later cells are as 

 good as any that can be reared if the 

 queen-rearing conditions are all right 

 in other respects. 



We believe that our system of rear- 

 ing queens as described above is the 

 best and nost natural method. All the 

 young queens are reared from abso- 

 lutely fresh eggs or very young larvae, 

 and there is no transferring necessary 

 with the incident danger of breaking 

 the eggs or of confusing the bees. By 

 the use of our flat-lying frame, as de- 

 scribed above, all the queen-cells hang 

 in a vertical position and can be drawn 

 out full length by the bees, which is 

 not always possible when built in 



P 



Entrance Clogged with Ice 



