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CHICAGO, ILL., FEBRUARY 4, 1897. No. 5. 



37th Year. 



Getting Queens Fertilized at the Least Cost. 



BY W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



The greatest expense attending the rearing of queens is in 

 getting them fertilized. I think it safe to say that virgin 

 queens could be reared for 10 cents each. Asa rule, a colony 

 will build a iTozen queen-cells at one batch — they will, if right- 

 ly managed, and the queens will be good ones, too. The colo- 

 ny will not be more than 10 days in doing it. A good colony 

 can certainly average a dollar a week building queen-cells. Of 

 course, a colony cannot go on week after week all summer 

 long building queen-cells, but it can build at least three good 

 batches, and then it can be dropt from the list and another 

 taken. In time, this colony can be used for cell-building again. 

 It could be used right along by giving it plenty of young bees 

 or brood, but it is exactly as well to give it a queen and let it 

 rear itself some more brood, and turn some other colony to the 

 work of cell-building. By employing proper methods to get 

 the cells built, and taking them away when sealed over and 

 the queens have commenced to "color," and hatching them 

 out in a lamp-nursery, there is no trouble in rearing virgin 

 queens at 10 cents each. I would like no better job than that 

 of rearing virgin queens at that price. 



It will be readily seen that the cost in queen-rearing comes 

 in getting them fertilized and holding them until needed if it 

 should happen, as it frequently does, that there is not an im- 

 mediate demand as soon as they begin laying. In queen-rear- 

 ing it is the usual plan to employ the same frames as are in use 

 in the apiary. This is an advantage in many ways. The same 

 kind and size of hives may be used, aud when the season is over 

 there is great convenience in uniting the nuclei. If the nuclei 

 gather much honey, it is easy to extract it if it is in the regu- 

 lar-size combs. All these are advantages that cannot be de- 

 nied, but the great amount of bees that are used to stock one 

 nuclei makes the cost of getting queens fertilized come pretty 

 high. Little combs 4 or 5 inches square have been tried, using 

 them in little boxes of the right size, and they work all right, 

 except that such small colonies are quite likely to swarm out, 

 and follow the queen when she takes her wedding-flight. More 

 likely, still, are they to swarm out after the queen has filled the 

 combs with eggs and there is nb more room for her to lay. 

 The latter difficulty is easily remedied by placing a piece of 

 queen-excluding zinc over the entrance after the queen begins 

 to lay. 



I have used with the best of resuts, the ordinary 4!iix4Ji- 

 xlj^ section-boxes for fra'mes, and theold-style, Heddon super 

 for a hive. I save the unfinisht sections that are left at the 

 end of the fall season. These are about half drawn out and 

 partly filled with honey. I use the regular bottom-board of a 

 hive that has a rim of a bee-space height around three of its 

 sides, putting another strip at the end where the entrance us- 

 ually is. This makes a rim all around it. Strips are then put 



crosswise at such points that they will meet the partitions in 

 the case. Strips are also nailed to the upper edges of these 

 partitions, bringing them up flush with the top of the case. A 

 movable partition is also put in the center of each apartment, 

 thus dividing it into two, and making eight little hives in each 

 case. Pieces are nailed to the upper part of the bottom-board 

 to meet these division-boards and make each little hive bee- 

 tight. A little board cover is also made for each little hive, 

 and then a regular hive-cover laid over all to keep out the 

 rain, and to prevent these little covers of thin boards from 

 warping. These extra covers are needed, because if all eight 

 of the nuclei were opened at the same time the bees would be 

 crawling back and forth ; and if one were queenless the bees 

 would be coming over into the nuclei that had a queen. Queens 

 might also, possibly, go from one nucleus to another and thus be 

 destroyed. A separate cover for each prevents all this. 



Entrancas are made by cutting out a portion of the rim 

 around the edge of the bottom-board ; about an inch is cut out 

 for each entrance, aud each is furnisht with a slide of bee- 

 zinc that can be put in place when the queen has been fertil- 

 lized. In fact, this slide is kept in place most of the time, It 

 being removed only when there is a queen of the right age to 

 fly. These guards are a great barrier to the entrance of rob- 

 bers. It seems to be almost impossible to have one of these 

 hives robbed when these guards are in place, I put two en- 

 trances on each side and as far apart as possible, and the num- 

 ber of queens lost is very few. 



To stock these little hives, three sections of combs are put 

 into each apartment. This brings the bees all in a close, com- 

 pact cluster. A caged laying queen is then put into each 

 apartment, and the case, without the bottom-board, is set over 

 a strong queenless colony. Every bee-keeper knows how the 

 bees will crowd into those sections and gather about the 

 queens. I then carry away the case and set it on the bottom- 

 board. Do this just at night when the bees are about done 

 flying. As soon as it is too dark for the bees to fly, release the 

 queens. There is no trouble about their being accepted. X 

 never lose one in this way. By the next morning the queen 

 has begun to lay, and the majority of the bees will adhere to 

 that location. Queenless bees are usually ready to give up 

 their location for a new one where there is a queen. When 

 larvae begin to appear in the combs it is safe to take away the 

 queen and to use the nuclei the same in all respects as is the 

 case with ordinary nuclei that are larger. Laying queens in- 

 stead of virgins are used to start the nuclei, as the bees are so 

 much more inclined to stay with a laying queen than with a 

 virgin. 



These little nuclei are so easy to manipulate. It is seldom 

 necessary to use smoke ; they seldom kill a queen even if she 

 is a virgin, and queens can be found so quickly and so easily. 

 If there is a dearth of orders for one or two weeks, or longer, 

 as sometimes happens, there are not a pound or two bees aud 

 two or three frames of brood and honey standing idle, caring 

 for one queen. 



To unite in the fall, simply take off the covers and remove 

 the bottom-boards, and stack up the cases* four or five high, 

 and when they are all nicely united, shake them off upon 

 combs of honey and give them a queen. As a rule, however, 

 such bees as these — those that have been used in nuclei all 

 summer — are of little value as "winterers." I have wintered 

 them, however, but they seldom come through in very good 

 condition. I sometimes think that Henry Alley's plan of shak- 

 ing them off on the ground and destroying them is about as 

 good as any. It depends somewhat upon how they have been 



