46 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 15. 



practicing, for queen-rearing, just what he 

 gave in " Scientific Queen-rearing " about ten 

 years ago. As the Roots and myself did not 

 think Bro. W. would have any objections to 

 having his letter appear in print they have 

 taken the liberty of publishing it, and I have 

 taken it as a text to tell the readers of Glean- 

 ings, and Bro. Wilkin in particular, just how 

 those " 600 sealed cells from that one colony, 

 the queen laying all the while," as Dr. Miller 

 puts it in " Stray Straws," were reared. These 

 queens (for every cell hatched out a perfect 

 queen) were reared just the same as I gave in 

 the " 1889 edition " of my book, and just as I 

 rear 999 out of every 1000 queens, for I prac- 

 tice no other plan, not even saving natural 

 swarming-cells, for, as a rule, they do not 

 prove as good as those reared by bees in an 

 upper story, with a laying queen below all the 

 time. 



Now, lest some one may think this is a 

 " puff " for my book I wish to say that I have 

 had nothing to do with the book since it went 

 into the publishers' hands ; for at that time I 

 sent it free and broadcast over the world, with 

 the hope that it might do the world some 

 good, not having any pecuniary interest in it 

 since, nor any other, except that it is my 

 " baby." It has been a " loss to know" mat- 

 ter with me for a long time why a few did not 

 succeed with a plan which is so perfect in my 

 hands, and to me seems so simple withal; and 

 all I shall attempt to do in this will be to go 

 over the ground given in the book a little more 

 minutely, as I have no improvements over 

 what is there given. Since I gave the book to 

 the world I have paid very little thought to 

 queen-rearing, my whole life and experiments 

 since then being put into studying about the 

 non-swarming of bees; and if I ever succeed 

 along this non-swarming line, Providence spar- 

 ing my life, I shall give that to the world in 

 book form also. With this long preliminary I 

 will proceed to tell " just how I rear queens." 



When spring opens I select one of the strong- 

 est colonies I have in the yard, and one hav- 

 ing a queen reared the summer before, as I 

 wish one which is not liable to fail in her egg- 

 laying powers before the season is over, as that 

 laying queen below has very much to do with 

 queens of the best quality, in my opinion. 



About the 10th to the middle of May I go to 

 several hives till I find the number of combs 

 of sealed brood that are necessary to take the 

 place of those having no brood in them in the 

 hive I have selected, which is generally from 

 two to four. These combs of brood (without 

 bees) are now set in the hive, when in a week 

 or ten days I have a colony strong enough to 

 commence operations. Perhaps I should say 

 just here that I use nine Gallup frames in this 

 hive, which is a chaff hive, and that I bring 

 from my out-apiary, the fall before, the queen 

 to rule over this hive, which is a mismated (or 

 "hybrid") queen, as generally called, for I 

 find that hybrid bees, showing about as many 

 black bees as those with yellow bands, will 

 build and complete nearly double the number 

 of cells as will pure Italians, and seem to take 

 to this line of work better than any other. I 

 usually bring several queens of this class to 



take the place of those sold, and then select 

 the strongest colony having o le of these 

 queens. As soon as the selection is made the 

 rest are used in the out-apiary again. I tell 

 this only as I wish to give every thing just as 

 I do it. 



As soon as the colony is strong enough to 

 go into the upper story I take two combs from 

 below, having mostly eggs and unsealed larvae 

 in them (don't. take any drone larvae, as drones 

 above a queen-excluder are always a nuisance), 

 and in their places put two combs of sealed 

 brood from other hives, as we wish all the bees 

 possible thus early in the season. 



I now put on top of the hive a hive having 

 a queen-excluder nailed to its bottom (if thus 

 nailed we never have to touch the excluder if 

 we wish to remove the upper hive during the 

 season), as it always comes off with the upper 

 hive, and in the center of this upper hive put 

 the two combs of brood, four frames well fill- 

 ed with honey, a division-board feeder, and 

 two dummies made from inch or % lumber. 



When about two days have elapsed for the 

 colony to adjust itself to the new conditions, 

 it being fed about a pint of thin sweet every 

 night, if honey is not coming in from the 

 field, they are ready for a batch of prepared 

 cell cups, as given in my book. To tell all 

 about how to prepare these would be too long 

 for this place; but all can find all about the 

 matter by turning to chapter 7 of the book, 

 and I could not tell that part any better were 

 I to try it over again. 



Before going for the royal jelly and the larvae 

 to transfer into it, I stop at the hive, take out 

 one of the dummies, shove the frames that 

 way till I leave a frame's space between the 

 combs of brood, when the cover is put on. 

 As a rule it takes me from 15 to 20 minutes to 

 get the royal jelly, the larvae, put the jelly and 

 larvae into the cell-cups, and get the now pre- 

 pared frame to the prepared hive. I now re- 

 move the covering (which is a quilt, with a 4- 

 inch sawdust cushion over it, and a hood or 

 cap eight inches deep over all), when I find 

 the space left for the prepared frame complete- 

 ly filled with bees — so much so that I have to 

 work the frame slowly up and down in lower- 

 ing it, so as to cause the bees to run out of the 

 way. I don't know that causing the bees to 

 cluster in this vacant space between the frames 

 of brood has any thing to do with the matter; 

 but it has always seemed to me that they are 

 better prepared with royal jelly and for queen- 

 rearing by doing so. Three days later I go to 

 the hive again, take out the other dummy, 

 draw the frames to the side of the hive till I 

 come to the first frame having brood in it, 

 when I lift the frame of cells, take off one or 

 two of them, for the royal jelly needed to 

 start the next " batch," when the frame of 

 cells is placed in the vacant space behind the 

 frame of brood, caused by taking out the dum- 

 my and drawing the others along, thus prepar- 

 ing the same place for the next frame of pre- 

 pared cell-cups which the first one occupied, 

 and when all ready it is placed there as was 

 the first. Three days later a frame of honey 

 is taken out from the opposite side from which 

 the last dummy was taken, the frames again 



