GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



INERAL (COMEESPONDENCE 



SOME ADVENTURES IN MEQUEENING 200 COLONIES 



BY FLORA M^INTYRE 



Last summer we decided to lequeen all 

 colonies with two-year-old queens, and all 

 that had shown any trace of European foul 

 brood in the spring, making about two 

 hundred in all. The next question was, 

 " Who will do the work"? " Mr. Hicks, who 

 had had the bees on shares, was to give 

 them up at the end of the season, and did 

 not want the job. I said to the Mother, 

 " We can do it ourselves. You and the 

 School Girl can do the work with some 

 unskilled help, perhaps. I will be Chief 

 Adviser, and perhaps the Teacher will help." 

 And so it came about that the Mother and 

 I arrived at the ranch June 17, with a camp 

 outfit and an A B C and X Y Z in case 

 several years away from the bees should 

 make us a little uncertain on some points. 



The Teacliei' arrived next day ; and on the 

 , 19tli, work with the bees began. Mr. Hicks 

 marked in the book the three best colonies 

 i)i the apiary, from all of which we took 

 larva; for (jueen-rearing in the course of 

 the summer. These colonies had resisted 

 foul brood, and gathered several superfuLs 

 of honey each thisyeai', when the apiary 

 as a whole produced only about half a crop. 

 Six colonies (which jjroved later to be too 

 many) were made queenless for cell-start- 

 ers, and two were discovered to be super- 

 seding. So we started two sticks of cells 

 right away, and began our " cells stai-ted " 

 record with 



6 — 19 C 

 6 — 19 F 



D4 

 D4 



Keudv for woi I 



The fourth colony in row D was the breed- 

 er used. The Mother 

 did the work in the 

 apiary, while I, hav- 

 ing had more experi- 

 ence with ([ueen- 

 rearing, and being 

 too much of an in- 

 valid to work among 

 the bees, gave direc- 

 tions and transferred 

 the larvEe. No trans- 

 ferring-tools were to 

 be located that first 

 day; but we were too 

 eager for the work to 

 wait, so we impro- 

 vised. A short search 

 brought to light a 

 chicken feather. This 

 was quickly cut into 

 the desired shape for 

 transferring; and for 

 handling the royal 

 jelly the ever-useful 

 h a i r p i n answeretl 

 very well. Later we 

 jnu'chased an ear- 

 sjJoon. Wooden and 

 wax cell-cups and 

 cell-i)rotectors were 

 included in our bag- 

 gage. The Teacher 

 cut out the lower 

 half of two combs, 

 and drove two small 

 nails into the end- 

 bars, just far enough 



