190 



THE AMEBIC AN APICULTURIST. 



lias ever appeared in the Apiculturist is 

 of more value, or of more interest to the 

 averaj^e beekeeper than the one in question. 

 There is not a beel^eeper who cannot put 

 tliese suggestions into practical use, and 

 sooner or later be greatly benefited there- 

 by. 



How to rear good queens. 



To the beginner who wonhl like to rear a few 

 good queens lor his own use, I oiler the following 

 metliiiil of securing them: — 



Select the best colony, and if there is littlejor no 

 honey coming in from the flowers, feed this colo- 

 ny every evening, a little more than the bees will 

 consume during the following tvventv-four hours. 

 Continue tlic fee<ling for a week, or until the col- 

 ony is in a thrifty condition; then on any after- 

 noon, remove the queen. 



On the fourth day after removing the queen, 

 open the liive and examine tlie combs carefully; 

 if there are cells sealed, open them and examine 

 the larvffi. Do not molest those not sealed. Re- 

 place the combs, and on tlie twelfth day from 

 that on which tlie queen was removed, open tlie 

 hive and cut out all tlie queen-cells but one, and 

 put them where they are needed. lie sure to con- 

 tinue the feeiliiig until tlie cells liave been taken 

 out. If you stop leeding, and there is no honey 

 coming from the flowers, the Ijees are liable to 

 destroy all the cells except two or tliree. 



In the above way the queens will all be reared 

 from eggs or larvaj less than twenty-four hours 

 old, anil the food from the cell from which the 

 larvffi were removed can be given to the larvae not 

 yet tealed. This i>lan will produce good queens, 

 and is much safer and more economical for the 

 beginner than to pui-chase queens and take the 

 risk of introducing them.— S, A. Shuck. 



Any old queen dealer will soon discover 

 that tlie author of the above has had but 

 little experience at rearing queens. He 

 says, " In tlie above way all the queens 

 will be reared from the eggs or larvje less 

 than ten days old. Larvae, my dear man, 

 are just what queens would be reared from 

 by the method you give, and that is 

 just what they should not be reared from. 

 Wlien bees follow nature, that is in natural 

 swarming, they select an egg from which 

 to rear a queen and never a larva. I must 

 say that I am surprised to see that no one 

 had " shown up " the fallacy of the above 

 method for rearing queens. Where was 

 the editor? lie must have been away or 

 a.sleep. Such stulf should not be per- 

 mitted to go into print, unless the editor 

 puts a footnote at the bottom giving some 

 reason why he gave space to such an ar- 

 ticle. 



Here is another wonderful piece of in- 

 formation found in the same article: " Be 

 sure to continue feeiiing until the cells 

 are tak(Mi out. If you stop feeding, and 

 there Is no honey coming from the flow- 

 ers, the bees are liable to destroy all the 

 cells except two or three." "What perfect 



nonsense! The writer further says, " this 

 plan will produce good queens." I say that 

 most queens reared by that plan are as 

 wortiiless as any thing can be. So far as 

 selecting and feeding tlie best colony in 

 the yard to get them in condition to rear 

 queens the writer is right. No doubt the 

 author of this wonderful method for rear- 

 ing queens has read the Beekeepers' 

 Handy Book. 



In another issue of an American bee- 

 paper, a man well-known to us, criticises 

 the foregoing method of rearing queens, 

 and tlien gives a plan that, to me, seems 

 even worse than the one he criticises. 

 Here it is : 



At any time when bees carry natural pollen, 

 and tlie diones are out, or will be at the time the 

 queens will be old enough to make her bridal 

 tour (early in the spring, summer, or late in the 

 season), take the queen from a strong colony, 

 then wait eight days, ami cut out every queen- 

 cell and insert a frame of eggs, not larvre. Be 

 sure that tliere is not one egg hatched. This is 

 the secret, not larvce hwi eggs. About treble the 

 nuinl>er of queen-cells will be constructed, and 

 the queens will be of the very bestl The longest 

 lived queens that I ever had were reared accord, 

 ing to the above method. 



Here it will be seen that a colony is 

 compelled to rear two lots of cells in or- 

 der to get one batch of queens. Did the 

 reader of this ever try the experiment of 

 rearing two broods of chickens by using 

 the same hen six weeks in succession? 

 What was the result? Just no success at 

 all. Every experienced queen breeder 

 will tell that man that he cannot rear good 

 queens by any such process, and every 

 queen dealer knows that only one set of 

 cells can be reared by the same lot of 

 bees and have the queens first-class. 

 What is nature when apiilied to queen- 

 rearing? Why, the bees select an egg for 

 the queen and not larvie, except when 

 forced to do so by removing the queen, 

 as in the first method given. 



I will ask the author of the last method 

 given for rearing queens these questions. 

 1. What Is the advantage of keeping a 

 colony qneenless eight days and then sup- 

 plying the eggs? Why not deprive the 

 bees of their queen, and in the course of 

 twelve lioitrs remove all the brood and 

 place tlie eggs in the hive? Try it and 

 see if the plan does not work much the 

 best. Why put a whole sheet of brood, or 

 eggs rather, in the hive and let the bees 

 build cells in that way? Can't you think 

 of a much better plan? Don't you know 

 that such a method as you recommend is 

 one of the things of tiie past? Is there 

 nothing connected with queen-rearing but 

 to furnish the bees a few eggs to build 

 cells frou)? It strikes me that there is a 

 great deal more to it. 



