THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



207 



ing and I will mention some of the 

 qualities, and give some of the points 

 that a queen sliould possess that is to 

 be used as a queen mother. All experi- 

 enced beekeepers know the importance 

 of having a strong, vigorous mother-bee. 

 It will be understood, of course, that 

 the breeding queen should be carefully 

 selected, and thoroughly tested the 

 previous season, in order to determine 

 her qualities regardnig purity and other 

 desirable points. In selecting a mother- 

 bee, I make it a point to select the lar- 

 gest and finest formed, as well as the 

 brightest colored queen in the apiary. 

 Special regard is paid to selecting for 

 gentleness, proli ficness and good working 

 qualities. Purity is determined by se- 

 lecting only those queens whose worker 

 progeny is uniformly marked. Such 

 queens can be depended upon to dupli- 

 cate themselves in handsome, golden 

 colored royal progeny every time. 



Never select a queen whose workers 

 are poor honey gatherers, as queens from 

 such mothers will not be first-class in 

 any respect. 



How to obtain the eggs for cell building. 



I cannot rear queens on a large scale 

 and draw the eggs from full colonies as 

 most queen dealers do and advise others 

 to do. There are many disadvantages 

 and objections to such a practice. The 

 life of a queen is endangered every time 

 a hive is opened and any of the combs 

 are removed. Even if the queen is not 

 killed by being jammed between the 

 combs, she is liable to be " balled " to 

 death. When a hive is opened the 

 bees, and more especially the queen, 

 is more or less excited, and at such 

 times the bees are apt to destroy their 

 own queen. 



Then, again, it is a difficult matter to 

 find eggs in a full colony, in any desired 

 quantity, and in the right condition for 

 cell building at any time one desires to 

 start cells. The plan recommended 

 by most breeders of queens is to insert 

 a clean, new comb in the centre of the 

 brood-nest of a full colony, and in the 

 course of a few days the comb is re- 



moved and after cutting more or less 

 holes in it, it is placed in a queenless 

 colony, when a numbtr of cells will be 

 built about the apertures thus made. 



While such a plan may do for rear- 

 ing a few queens, I think it very objec- 

 tionable if one hundred or more queens 

 are to be reared. 



To obviate all danger of killing any 

 valuable breeding queens, I find it the 

 best plan to keep the mother-bee in 

 a small hive, similar to the one illustrated 

 in figure i. The dimensions of such a 

 hive as I have used for many years 

 is as follows : Depth, six inches, width 

 from side to side, eight inches, and 

 from front to rear, six inches. This is 

 inside measure. Five frames are used 

 in the hive. These hives are made of 

 \ in. thick boards for durability. When 



d 



Fig. 1. Hive for breeding queens. 



the colony is made up, two combs of 

 honey, two of brood and one empty 

 comb are used. The frames of honey 

 are placed at the sides, then the brood, 

 and lastlv the empty comb is placed in 

 the centre. About three pints of bees 

 and a queen are then put in the hive. 

 The queen will deposit her first eggs 

 in the empty comb. Three days later 

 those eggs will be at the proper age for 

 cell building. 



A comb that has been used for brood 

 once or twice is rather the best to use 

 for cell building, though most any comb 

 will do when prepared as described fur- 

 ther on. 



About one week previous to the time 

 of commencing queen-rearing is the 



