TIIK AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



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a centre frame coutaining brood, cut a hole 

 two iuches in diameter; cut one of the queen 

 cells from the hive containing them, with a 

 little comb each side of it, being very careful 

 not to press or injure it in any way; dip the 

 edges of it in a little melted wax, and insert it 

 in the frame, and put it back in the hive. In 

 nine cases out of ten this cell will be gladly re- 

 ceived by the bees, and hatch in a few days. 

 This process can be repeated with as many 

 hives as you have cells, and if done by the last 

 of May or first of June, you may be quite sure 

 that these young queens will be fertilized by 

 Italian drones, because you ■will Jiaveno others in 

 your apiary so early in the season. One or more 

 cells must be left in the hive where they are 

 reared, that it may be sure of a queen; and all 

 j'our hives should be examined, from time to 

 time, to see that the cell in each hatches, and 

 then to be sure that the young queens all lay at 

 the proper time. 



I usually find them depositing eggs between 

 the third and twelfth days after they hatch. If 

 any colony fails to secure a fertile queen in this 

 way, insert into it from the hive, which now 

 contains your Italian c^ueen, a frame containing 

 eggs, and from that they will rear others. Be- 

 fore doing this, look over all the frames care- 

 fully to see that they have not commenced cells 

 from their own eggs. 



Alter jou have a fertile queen in each hive, 

 watch the young worker bees as they hatch, 

 and if all, or nearly so, are slender in form, and 

 have three distinct golden rings, you may hojie 

 they are pure. If there is a doubt about any 

 one, you can exchange it for another at your 

 leisure. Bear in mind that the main thing the 

 first season is to get a young queen in every 

 hive, reared from the one you 'purchased. That 

 accomplished, all your drones Avill afterwards 

 be pure, and young queens reared from that 

 time forth will be quite sure to meet pure 

 drones. 



The following spring your hives will have 

 drones in them two weeks in advance of 

 all black bees in the neighborhood; and if yours 

 arc strong, and you make early swarms, the 

 chances are much in favor of your queens being 

 purely fertilized. 



The second season of your operations all 

 doubtful queens should be replaced; and if 

 pains be taken you can easily have none but 

 pure queens in your hives while the original 

 queen which you purchased lives. I find the 

 temper and disposition of the bees a better test 

 of purity than their markings. The Italians are 

 more easily managed, and less easily provoked 

 to anger. If you open a hive of them and lift 

 out a frame, instead of flying about in all 

 directions, and getting in a rage, (as do the black 

 bees,) hardly a bee leaves the comb— all cling 

 to it quietly until it is replaced. Where you 

 find them thus clinging" to the comb, you have 

 one good mark of purity. 



The only certain test that I rely upon is tlie 

 color and markings of a queen's royal children, 

 or the queens reared from her. The female bee 

 is invariably like the father, and the queens are 

 the only perfect female bee. If you rear queens 

 rom a queen, and they are well marked and 



colored, you may be sure she is purely im- 

 pregnated. 



I had a number of fine queens last season 

 whose worker progeny was so well marked that 

 I had little doubt of their purity. Yet, on rearing 

 queens fromtheir eggs they were not like their 

 mother, and their eggs, when tested, produced 

 queens hard to be distinguished from common 

 ones. This fact Avill explain why the Italians, 

 in careless hands, so soon degenerate. There 

 is no need of this if the queen you purchase is 

 pure, and you take pains the first season to put 

 a ciueen reared from her into every hive you 

 have; and, in the second season, to replace all 

 whicli show impure marks. 



The most difficult part of this process, as I 

 have described it, (and it is more easily done 

 than described,) consists in finding the old 

 queen. At swarming time (the best season to 

 do it) the hives are or ought to be papulous; 

 and to the beginner it seems a formidable 

 operation to look the frames over, and find one 

 bee among so many. Place an empty hive by 

 the side of the one you wish to examine; after 

 opening the latter very gently, sprinkle it well 

 with sweetened Avater. It is better not to alarm 

 them by the use of smoke when you wish to 

 find the queen. Begin near the centre,, and take 

 out a frame, and look carefully on each side of 

 it. If she is not on it, put it in the empty hive, 

 and take out anotlier, proceeding in the same 

 way. If the queen is found on neither of them, 

 spread a sheet before the hive which now con- 

 tains the frames, and empty upon it the bees 

 that remain clinging to the hive. If she is 

 among them you will see her as she passes into 

 the hive. If you do not find her, return the 

 frames to the other hive, examining them with 

 care. I have often found the Ciueen on the first 

 frame I took out; and then, again, have taken 

 them all out three times before seeing her. 

 There is little difficulty in finding Italian queens; 

 they are not disposed to hide, and their bright 

 color make them very conspicuous. 



Those who are Italianizing large apiaries, or 

 rearing queens for sale, need no advice in the 

 matter, yet may be interested in some items of 

 my experience. I have succeeded better in 

 rearing ciueens in moderately large hives than 

 in the small ones generally used for the pur- 

 pose. I now have my nucleus hives containing 

 three frames, the size of my large hives. A 

 hive containing twelve frames, Avliich can be 

 divided into four parts, at Avill, is very conve- 

 nient, the entrance into tAvo of the parts being 

 at the ends, and in the others at the sides. 

 Such a hive is Avarmer than a single nucleus, 

 Avhich is important in the early part of the 

 year. 



If such a hive contains a pure Italian queen, 

 and she be taken from it in May, there Avill be 

 eggs in each of the four parts Avhcn the dividers 

 are put in, and from thirty to forty queen cells 

 will be started at once. In ten days as many 

 of these as you please can be cut out and given 

 to other hives, but four or more should be left 

 in it. The young queens hatched in these hives 

 are very sure to mark their place when they go 

 out for their excursions, as the size and entrance 

 make it pectfiiar in appearance. 



