that we can do is to lay down what may 

 be called the general laws of profitable 

 bee-culture, while the application of 

 these principles may constantly remind 

 us that " what is one man's meat may 

 be another man's poison." Only those 

 with sufficient knowledge and" sound 

 practical judgment, will ever be able 

 to apply these principles to their own 

 localities, in the varying circumstances 

 which, in the long" run, must be en- 

 countered by every bee-keeper. Such 

 men as Quinby, Grimm, Hetherington 

 and Harbison are admirable examples 

 •of what can be done in this line. 

 Oxford, April 15, 1879. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Queen-Rearing. 



H. ALLEY. 



The saying " that there are right and 

 wrong ways to do any thing " can as 

 well be applied to queen rearing as to 

 anything else. Sometime last year, a 

 correspondent in Gleanings, gave his 

 method for rearing queens. His plan 

 comes under the wrong way of doing 

 things. He stated that he sent his way 

 of rearing for the benefit of beginners. 

 If my memory serves me correctly he 

 reared queens in this way : " Remove 

 the queen from a full colony of bees, 

 and in the course of a few days destroy 

 all the cells the bees have made, and 

 then insert a comb containing eggs." 



An old queen breeder, would put the 

 eggs in, in the first place, and at the 

 right time. Good queens cannot be 

 reared in any such way. We have found, 

 from experience, that the sooner queen- 

 less colonies are supplied with eggs to 

 rear other queens from, the better the 

 young queens will be. After the excit- 

 ment caused by the loss of the queen is 

 over, I notice that the bees do not go to 

 work to construct cells with as much 

 vigor and determination as they do 

 during the first few hours after the 

 queen was removed. 



We can remove the queen from a full 

 colony and in one hour have them build- 

 ing queen-cells, and be quietly at work. 



This is something we discovered last 

 year. We select the most populous colo- 

 nies to rear queens in. A hive of bees 

 can be compelled to rear anywhere from 

 1 to 200 queens, the more they raise the 

 poorer the queens will be. Twenty-five 

 queens to a full colony, is as many as 

 should be reared at one time. Just as 

 good queens can be reared in small 

 boxes as in full colonies, provided too 

 many cells are not made at one time. 

 Bees that have reared one batch of 

 queens should not be used for that pur- 



pose the second time. Fresh and young 

 bees should be used everytime, if one 

 desires to get good queens. Many of 

 those who rear queens for sale allow too 

 many cells to be made at one time, 

 hence the out-cry against dollar queens. 

 Last season we had the pleasure of 

 witnessing a small colony of bees super- 

 sede their queen. The queen was one 

 that we had used for three seasons to 

 breed from, and we did not think she 

 was quite vigorous enough to breed, 

 from last year, but wanted to preserve 

 her life as long as possible, for the good 

 she had done. She was kept in a small 

 hive with a few bees ; the combs were 

 kept well filled with eggs and brood, 

 which I would remove occasionally to 

 keep up other nuclei ; the workers felt 

 that the old lady was rather old, and 

 laid their plans to get rid of her and to 

 supply themselves with another queen. 

 So they commenced to construct a queen 

 cell, which I cut out as soon as sealed 

 over. I obtained a half-dozen very fine 

 large queens in this way ; but the bees 

 soon got sick of queen-rearing, and one 

 day pitched the old lady out of the 

 house. I had raised nearly $2,000 worth 

 of young queens from that one, and I 

 never saw a dark-colored queen from 

 her — or any that were not very yellow 

 and beautiful. I have one of her 

 daughters now, that I am thinking of 

 sending to friend Newman, but I don't 

 like to spare her. I have reared a good 

 many queens from this one and have 

 seen none that were not very beautiful. 

 She is 3 years old in June next. We 

 will send a few of her eggs to any one 

 within 200 miles of Wenham, who 

 would like to know whether a queen 

 will duplicate herself in royal progeny 

 everytime. We shall charge nothing 

 for these eggs, and only do this to prove 

 what we said in the Journal last fall. 



Rearing queens for $1.00 each is not 

 a money making affair. The price does 

 not make the quality of the queen by 

 any means — the manner of rearing, 

 and not the price, makes the quality. 

 A customer sent us an order for some 

 queens a few days ago, and took occas- 

 sion to say that he had paid certain 

 parties $15!00 each for queens, and that 

 they were no better than those he al- 

 ready had. 



I claim that a man should have con- 

 siderable experience in rearing queens 

 before he can rear those that will be 

 satisfactory in all respects. There are 

 too many bee-keepers who are rearing a 

 few queens for the fun of the thing. I 

 know a man who is rearing queens and 

 selling them to his neighbors for pure 

 Italians. This man has 100 colonies of 

 black bees in his yard. Pure queens 



