COMMERCIAL METHODS 123 



danger of swarming or of an emerging queen destroying the 

 others. 



Queens to be replaced should have been removed the day 

 before so that the bees will have missed them and be ready 

 to accept the cells. The cells should be cut from the comb, care 

 being used not to cut too close and injure the young queen. They 

 may be fastened to the side of a brood frame with a toothpick or 

 simply dropped between two frames above the center of the brood 

 nest. 



If they are to be used for making increase, the colonies to be 

 broken up into nuclei should be previously made ready. The 

 advantage of using the ripe cells is that much less trouble is 

 necessary than when mating the queens in baby nuclei and then 

 later transferring them to the full colonies to be requeened. If 

 used in nuclei for purposes of increase they emerge, and are 

 mated from the hive in which they will remain, thus saving the 

 trouble of introduction. It is much easier to get a cell accepted 

 than a virgin queen or even a laying queen. 



Dr. Miller recommends the use of a colony that has started 

 queen cells in preparation for swarming as cell builders when 

 available, as conditions in such a colony will approximate the 

 natural method of queen rearing. 



Commercial Methods. — In order to succeed commercially the 

 queen breeder must be able to supply queens in considerable 

 numbers with regularity throughout the season. If the honey 

 flow is checked he must feed his colonies freely in order to con- 

 tinue to supply his orders. While the foregoing plan is well 

 suited to rearing a few dozen queens to supply the needs of one's 

 own apiary, it would be entirely too slow for commercial pur- 

 poses. Then the man who rears queens for sale must be pre- 

 pared to get them mated safely, which requires additional equip- 

 ment in the way of nuclei, etc. In making nuclei for mating 

 purposes one can get a much larger number from breaking up a 

 single colony of bees than would be possible where they were 

 used for increase, each of which was expected to build up to a 



