24 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



February 



ony. If they succeed another queen 

 will be balled, and perhaps killed. 

 At this point comes the idea of having 

 a plentiful number of cages on a con- 

 venient shelf. 



My experience with such shelves 

 reminds me of a mixture of queen 

 cages, dust, honey, and many other 

 tools. Many cages necessitate a box 

 to retain them, or they gradually 

 spread out untill they drop off the 

 ends of the shelves and are kicked 

 about on the floor. If they are kept 

 in a box, why not have the box follow 

 -after the apiarist, instead of the api- 

 arist following after the box ? There 

 is nothing which is obliged to go out 

 or in the shop besides the supers of 

 sections or exacting combs, either 

 empty or filled. The care of supers 

 and honey is shop work, Four-fifths 

 of the outisde work is queen rearing, 

 and nearly all the queen rearing is 

 yard work. Then the handiest place 

 for a box of cases is setting on top of 

 one of the central hives. It not only 

 needs an opening in the side when the 

 same is used as a seat, but there is 

 advantage in a hinged cover to admit 

 of easy access to several apartments, 

 so that different unteusils may be 

 kept separate and be readily taken 

 out. It must be absolutely dry, and if 

 a hinged cover is no provided, a flat 

 piece of tin may be attached with a 

 nail in such a manner to be pushed 

 to one side. 



If the bees are bred up to a high 

 stage of perfection in regard to work- 

 ing qualities, there might not be much 

 need of to much extensive supersedure 

 or rearing of queens, but in most api- 

 aries I have seen strains of bees pres- 

 ent a most uncertain admixture. 

 This makes' the need for much select- 



ion and breeding. Usually the new 

 queen are selected by the cells of 

 swarming colonies or by varied select- 

 ion of queen mothers and promiscuous 

 drones. 



A better plan seems to be to select 

 about four colonies out of the apiary, 

 as breeders of queens and drones. 

 Then rear queens by thirties and for- 

 ties from each colony. Then intro- 

 duce young queens in rotation by 

 thirties and forties. In an apiary of 

 120 colonies, there would be only three 

 or four different strains. These would 

 be of the best, and provide a suflficient 

 number of queens of each kind and 

 age in particular, from which a selec- 

 tion could be made for the object of 

 further improvement. With only 

 three or four different strains or kinds, 

 their department is easily remembered 

 from year to year, and from week to 

 week during the season. By ordinary 

 modes of selection amongst many vary- 

 ing circumstances, there is a tendency 

 to breed downward even more than 

 upward. 



I reared queens by forties this sea- 

 son, and although but 150 queens were 

 wanted for supersedure, by a rigid 

 method of sorting it required nearly 

 400 in order to get the 150. 



By this method of queen rearing it 

 requires about thirty-five introducing 

 cages, seventy -five cell protectors, 150 

 zinc entrance guards, sixty escapes, 

 several shipping cages, nails of several 

 sizes, a bee brush, a long bladed knife, 

 etc. A man with an apron to carry 

 all these things would put Santa Claus 

 in the shade, and amuse outsiders 

 equal to Friends Dibbern and B. Tay- 

 lor, with their swarm-catching appa- 

 ratus in full blast. 



After orange bloom there came a 



