THE AMERICAN APIGULTURIST. 



91 



This brings us directly to another 

 important matter. In an article under 

 the head of "apiary," in the American 

 Stockman, I find the following remark- 

 able statement : 



A correspondent of y^e American Rural 

 Borne says : Picking up a paper lately which 

 had an article in it on queen rearing, I came 

 across this sentence in the article: "'Queen- 

 cells, or a newly hatched queen, should be 

 given every colony or nucleus, as soon as a 

 queen is taken out." In reading this I won- 

 dered whether the writer had ever had much 

 experience in rearing queens, or whether he 

 meant just what he said. If he meant just 

 what he said, it would seem a little strange 

 that nearly every writer on this subject should 

 say wait twenty-four hours. I have often 

 given queen-cells at the time I took a queen 

 from a colony, or in some cases waited from 

 six to ten hours later, and have always had 

 nineteen out of twenty such cells destroyed 

 unless they were protected with a queen pro- 

 tector. I have had better success in letting a 

 very young queen run upon the combs as soon 

 as I had taken out the laying queen, than I 

 have in giving them cells; yet as far as my ex- 

 perience goes, not more than one out of ten 

 of these will be accepted if let go on the 

 combs at this time. Some years the bees are 

 very slow in starting queen-cells after a queen 

 is taken away, wiien I have had over one-half 

 of the cells destroyed which were put in after 

 twenty-four hours had elapsed from the time 

 the queen was taken away. 



That I am not alone in this matter is shown 

 by the following from one of our most expe- 

 rienced queen breeders: "In my early days 

 of beekeeping, I used to read that when form- 

 ing a nucleus by taking two combs of bees 

 and brood and placing them in an empty hive 

 where I wished the nucleus to stand, I should 

 give them a sealed queen-cell at once. After 

 trying it very many times they have been 

 invariably destroyed, the bees building queen- 

 cells to suit themselves from the eggs and 

 larva which they had. If the nucleus has 

 been formed long enough for them to have 

 queen-cells of their own, and a cell ready to 

 hatch is given them, it will not be destroyed, 

 or if their cells are cut out and another in- 

 serted in their place, it will be respected." 

 This corresponds exactly with all of my ex- 

 perience. If I attempt to give a queen-cell 

 to a colony from which I have taken a queen, 

 before they start cells from their own brood, 

 the cell is invariably destroyed. Hence if, at 

 twenty-four hours after the removal of a queen, 

 no cells are started, with me, it is not safe to 

 give a cell just ready to hatch, unless the same 

 is protected. As looking over the combs to 

 see just when cells are started is extra work, I 

 now wait forty-eight hours, and usually all 



works well. Where I think I do not want to 

 wait this length of time I use the queen-cell 

 protectors, when I get a queen hatched in a 

 colony within from six to eighteen hours from 

 the time the old one was taken out. 



These cell protectors are made by rolling a 

 piece of wire cloth around a tapering stick, so 

 as to form a cage having an opening in one 

 end about as large as a lead pencil, while the 

 other end is large enough to admit the cell 

 at its iiase. The queen-cell is now slipped 

 into the protector and the large end secured 

 so the bees cannot get at it, when the whole 

 is put down into the center of the cluster of 

 bees, between two combs, where it is left to 

 hatch. As the bees always destroy a cell by 

 biting into the side of it, this protects the 

 cell so they cannot do this, yet allows the 

 queen to come out at the lead-pencil hole. 



While the above does not agree with 

 my experience, nevertheless it is quite 

 an important piece of information. A 

 good method for introducing queens and 

 queen cells is given in the above, as 

 well as the way to make and use the 

 cell protector. 



Now, my experience in introducing 

 very young queens and in giving queen- 

 cells to either full or nucleus colonies 

 has been this : when a fertile queen has 

 been taken fi-om a colony, I have for 

 years made it a practice to immediately 

 place in the hive a 70"// matured queen- 

 cell. 1 do this not only because I have 

 found it perfectly safe to do so, but be- 

 cause it saves so much time and trouble 

 later on. 



It does not seem to be generally un- 

 derstood by beekeepers that it is «(?/ 

 the worker bees that destroy the un- 

 hatched queen. While the bees will 

 not open a queen cell and sting the em- 

 bryo queen, they permit a queen to do 

 so. When the unhatched queen has 

 received a fatal wound, then the bees 

 remove her and at once tear down the 

 cell. 



Let me say again that bees having a 

 queen will not destroy a queen- cell un- 

 til after a queen has opened the cell 

 and stung the unhatclied queen. Until 

 the queen has done her work the bees 

 will continue to nurse and care for the 

 cell the same as they do when the col- 

 ony is queenless. 



Should a queen emerge from a cell 



