May, 1920 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



275 



^:;r^-:=^ 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIE 



UOftHi 



REARING ONE'S OWN QUEENS 



A Very Sure and Practical Method ot Getting Ex- 

 cellent Results 



[Tliis paper was read by Jay Smith of Vincennes, 

 Ind., at the last meeting of the National Beekecipers' 

 Association held at Buffalo in March. It was voted 

 to request both Gleanings in Bee Culture and the 

 American Bee Journal to publish this valuable 

 paper. — Editor. ] 



At the risk of being accused of ' ' harp- 

 ing, " I am going to state that few of us 

 realize the importance of having vigorous 

 young queens at the head of all of our 

 colonies. Elisha Gallup said, ' ' Around the 

 queen centers all there is in apiculture. ' ' 

 Doolittle said, ' ' Upon no other one thing 

 does the honey part of the apiary depend 

 so much as it does upon the queen. ' ' Dr. 

 Miller says, "The queen being the very soul 

 of the colony, I hardly consider any pains 

 too great that will give better queens. ' ' 

 Quinby said, "Too much importance cannot 

 be attached to the necessity of keeping each 

 hive supplied with a good queen." Dr. 

 Phillips says, "Unless the queen at the 

 head of the colony is a good one, it is use- 

 less to expect that colony to be productive." 



We hear a good deal of discussion as to 

 the best strain of bees, and as to the advisa- 

 bility of breeding from the queen whose 

 colony produced the most honey. The ques- 

 tion frequently comes up, "Which are best, 

 the goldens, three-banded, or leather-color- 

 ed?" While all of these are important, yet 

 I believe what is far more important is, 

 how the queen is reared. To rear the best 

 qiu'eiis it is important that they have 

 the best care from the time the larva hatch- 

 es from the egg until the queen is mated 

 and laying. 



The honey-producer who raises his own 

 queens has the following advantages over 

 the commercial queen-breeder: He requires 

 but a limited number; he can choose the 

 time of the year when the honey flow is just 

 right; and he will usually find it practical 

 to introduce the queen-cell to the colony iii- 

 .stead of allowing the queen to become mat- 

 ed from a nucleus hive, thus saving the 

 work and expense of nucleus hives and the 

 risk in introducing the laying queen. The 

 disadvantage of this system is that it is 

 necessary to keep the colony longer without 

 a laying queen. But if the cells are pro 

 duced as the honey flow is coming on, the 

 colony that is made queenless will lose lit 

 tie, for the workers that would have hatch 

 ed if their laying queen had been left vvitii 

 them, would not become fielders till after 

 the honey flow was over. Then again, if 

 one should have European foul brood in the 

 yard, this method of requeening would be 



the very best method for eradicating the 

 disease. 



1 shall not attempt in this short article 

 to give a complete description of queen- 

 rearing, but shall dwell upon some features 

 that I believe should be emphasized. For 

 the one who rears over 100 queens per year, 

 I believe, when all things are considered, 

 that the grafting method is to be preferred. 



As the honey flow is coming on and the 

 stronger colonies begin to show signs of 

 swarming, and the combs begin to drip 

 nectar when shaken, it is time to get busy 

 at queen-rearing. The method of getting 

 the grafted cells accepted by the use of 

 the queenless and broodless colony is good, 

 but the swarm box has many advantages, 

 provided you have a good cellar where the 

 bees may be kept warm on cool nights and 

 be kept cool on hot days. As most are 

 familiar with the process of grafting, I shall 

 not dwell on that further than to state that 

 I believe much better results will be ob- 

 tained by the use of royal jelly. Some 

 claim that they get good results without us- 

 ing it, but I never could. The jelly should 

 be diluted with clear water till it is as thin 

 as royal jelly surrounding a larva that is 

 just hatched. J. W. George of El Centre, 

 Calif., informed us that royal jelly can be 

 bottled and kept from one season to the 

 next. I tried this the last season and find 

 it one of the most convenient little tricks 

 of the trade. A shallow screw-cap jar with 

 a wide mouth is suitable for storing this 

 jelly. If you have no such jar, you might 

 be able to find one if you will rummage 

 around in your wife's manicuring outfit. 

 The ladies usually have these little porce 

 lain jars, filled with pink salve or freckle 

 dope or something. You can clean this out 

 and put the contents into a tin can and 

 })resent it to your wife with your compli- 

 ments and make off with the little jar. 

 Sterilize it thoroly b}' boiling, for the bees 

 seem to object to the smell that comes with 

 it. This jar, together with a jelly spoon, 

 may be carried in the pocket, and when you 

 are working among your bees and find any 

 royal jelly you just pull this jar out of your 

 pocket and can it right there. From a colo- 

 ny that is preparing to swarm you can get 

 enough to graft several hundred cells. For 

 filling the swarm box a tin funnel is con- 

 \ eiiient. I prefer a swarm box large enough 

 to hold five frames, but only two frames are 

 used. These are placed one at each side, 

 leaving the space in the center to accoin- 

 modate three grafted cell bars. In filling 

 the swarm box, it is well to place it on 

 scales so that the weight of the bees may be 

 accurately known. Between four and five 

 j)ounds of bees should be used. These must 

 be taken from a strong colony in order that 



