THE BEE-KEEPERS" REVIEW 181 



THi: BEST QUEENS COME TROM THE BEST CEI.I.S. 



Queen cells built in full colonies are generally fine and well 

 formed, and the queens correspondingly fine. This is as they should 

 be under the most favorable conditions of full colonies. If the cells 

 are examined they will usually be found to be long, rough, with 

 indentations on their surface ; and the amount of royal jelly depos- 

 ited around the embryonic queen to be very abundant. In some 

 cells it is in excess of consumption, and a large quantity is left after 

 the young queen has emerged from the cell. 



\Mien a colony is deprived of its queen they instinctively go to 

 work, as soon as the excitement attending the loss subsides, to rear 

 another. They are ready to do the work; but in order to get the 

 best results, we must supply them with all the requisites and es- 

 sentials. 



The egg of the queen is analogous to the eggs of fowls and 

 birds. It has its delicate coverings, albumen and yolk ; and when 

 the little germ within develops and bursts the shell, it emerges a 

 tiny worm or grub, scarcely discernible with the naked eyes. This 

 is now the perfect age of the larvae for the bees to develop into a 

 queen. Always select the larvas as young as possible, but never 

 over two days old. At three days old it produces poor and puny 

 queens, and after the larvse gets four days old it is entirely worth- 

 less for breeding purposes. It has been demonstrated time and 

 time again, that the royal jelly is most abundantly elaborated by 

 young bees, and for this o'bject they must be fully supplied with 

 both honey and pollen. The temperature of the hive must be high 

 enough not to chill the larvre. 



In order to get the larvse of the right age you must insert a 

 frame of nice, clean worker comb in the center of the brood nest 

 of your hive that contains your breeding queen, and if this colony 

 is strong and the queen prolific — a condition in which it should be 

 kept — the comb may be filled with eggs by the next day ; but if the 

 comb is not clean and has been out of the hive for some time, the 

 queen will refuse to lay in it until the bees clean and polish the 

 cells. They frequently fill the cells of such comb with honey, 

 rather than have eggs deposited in it. 



Queen breeding is not queen rearing; therefore I shall not take 

 up your time by describing the new or old methods of queen rear- 

 ing. This work is not perfect or complete. It is merely a starting 

 point in the right direction. 

 Dodge City, Kansas. 



