1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



681 



under certain conditions, a g-reat majority 

 are built out in supersedure colocies or 

 those actually queeuless. I do not believe 

 that there is any method known — and we 

 have great respect for our veteran queen- 

 breeder Mr. xVlley — that will produce better 

 queens than we are now rearing. — Ed.] 



QUEEN-REARING. 



The Comb ; How to Prepare it ; How to Remove 

 the Cocoons with the Young Larvs. 



BY W. H. PRIDGEN. 



The comb from which the transfer is made 

 should be such as has been in use until 

 several generations of brood have emerged 

 from it, and is, consequently, quite dark 

 when held up to the light. While some that 

 is quite old and thick works well it is not 

 necessary to use the very oldest that may 

 be found. It should be thick enough for 

 the bottoms of the cells to lose their hexag- 

 onal shape and look glossy. When such 

 is shaven down to within \i inch of the bot- 

 tom of the cells on both sides, with a keen- 

 edged slightly heated thin table-knife, and 

 bent back and forth, the gun-cap-shaped 

 cocoons or cell-bottoms formed by the skins 

 or silken tissues left by each generation of 

 hatching brood will drop from it or can be 

 lifted out with and transferred to the wax 

 cup with the stick herewith illustrated. All 

 combs do not work alike. The 

 glossy cocoons will almost drop 

 from some after they are shaved 

 down, while others seem to be 

 glued in, and have to be loosened 

 up with the pointed end of the 

 stick; and any of them seem to be 

 more easily removed from a piece 

 cut some distance from the edge of 

 the comb or near the center. When 

 one is found that works unusually 

 well it can be used to patch the 

 holes cut in other combs by cutting 

 a piece the size and shape of the 

 piece containing larvae to be cut 

 out. Place it over the spot select- 

 ed, and use it as a pattern to cut 

 the comb to be used in transfer- 

 ring by, and simply slip it in the 

 opening made. 



Four or five days later this patch 

 may be found containing larvas of 

 the desired age, and the operation 

 can be repeated continually during 

 the season. 



As a rule, if the hole made in a 

 comb is not patched the bee will 

 fill it with drone comb, which less- 

 ens the chances of always finding 

 a very small spot containing larvae 

 all of the right age. This is often 

 the case when, from any cause, 

 brood-rearing has subsided, as the 

 queen is more inclined to deposit 

 eggs scatteringly at such times. 

 But, one does have to cut out a very 

 large piece to get the number wanted, as a 



piece one inch square will supply enough 

 to graft two or three batches when all are 

 of the right age. 



WORKING THE BROODER FOR EGGS. 



Many avoid taxing valuable breeding 

 queens to the extent of keeping them in full 

 colonies, claiming that they are not so soon 

 exhausted; but when kept on only three or 

 four combs, all available comb is soon filled 

 with eggs, followed by a check in laying 

 unless combs of brood are removed and 

 empty combs given, which, in reality, taxes 

 the queen nearly as heavily as when on a 

 full complement of combs. 



If only a few larvas are wanted at inter- 

 vals, empty comb can be given a few days 

 in advance, and, when filled with eggs, re- 

 moved, to be cared for by bees having vir- 

 gin queens, queenless bees, or in stories 

 above queen -excluders, by cell-builders, 

 etc., the transfers to be made from it so 

 long as the larva; are the right age; but 

 where there is almost a daily demand, the 

 management must be such as to keep the 

 queen laying continuously, which gives no 

 trouble during the main breeding season, 

 as patches of hatching eggs and young lar- 

 vae can always be found at such times. 



Some doubt the advisability of restrain- 

 ing breeding queens in egg-laying, believ- 

 ing that it affects the prolificness of their 

 offspring; but we notice that a check in lay- 

 ing takes place as soon as the swarming- 

 fever strikes a colony, and that but few 

 eggs are deposited while preparations aie 

 being made to swarm, compared to the num- 

 ber preceding such preparations; but this 

 may be due to several reasons, one being 

 that the bees do not want to be taxed with 

 the feeding of a great many larva; whi;e 

 nursing the larval queens, the secret being 

 the importance of a large force of nurse 

 bees with their energies bent on supplying 

 the queens to be with ample nourishment 

 rather than the condition of the mother, as 

 to her prolificness, or, rather, the quantity 

 of eggs being deposited daily, just at the 

 time those are laid that produce the queens. 



The preservation of the breeding-queens 

 being the only factor of consideration (as 

 to whether they are kept laying at full ca- 

 pacity or not), the lives of which can not be 

 prolonged sufficiently to justify any great 

 inconvenience in the matter of rearing 

 daughters of the highest type from them at 

 will, besides wishing to change from time 

 to time to those in which we note more de- 

 sirable traits, the object should be a man- 

 agement that aftords the greatest conven- 

 ience to the owner, and enable him to secure 

 larvae when needed, as far as possible. 



One point is, to remove the breeder's hive 

 to a new location and throw the working 

 force into some other colony as soon as suffi- 

 cient honey is being stored to check brood- 

 rearing by the filling of the combs as fast 

 as the young bees emerge. Hy so doing the 

 colony is deprived of its field force without 

 destro3'ing the usefulness of these old bees, 

 and is left in an excellent condition to re- 

 sume brood-rearing in a short time, which 



