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Modera Queen-Rearing. 



By W. Z. HUTCHINSON. 



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Queen-rearing has kept pace 

 with the other strides made in the 

 apicultural line ; and It is doubtful 

 if any queen-breeder uses any more 

 advanced methods than those em- 

 ployed by Mr. W. H. Prldgen, of 

 North Carolina. He also fur- 

 nisht the originals from which 

 the accompanying engraving was 

 made. The process of dipping the 

 cell-cups is described on page 

 532. 



After the cups are attacht to a 

 stick, as shown in the illustration, 

 they are supplied with just-hatcht 

 larvae, using the small, concaved 

 end of the forming-stick, whereby 

 the larva can be pickt up, cocoon 

 and all, and deftly transferred to 

 the bottom of the cell-cup. This 

 is " taking up the baby without 

 waking it up," as somebody 

 called it. 



After the cells are supplied with 

 larvffi, the stick is fitted into a 

 frame from the lower half of 

 which the comb has been cut 

 away, and given to a queenless 

 colony. How these cells appear 

 after the bees are through with 

 them is well shown in the engrav- 

 ing. Isn't this away ahead of the 

 old way, where the bees went at it 

 to suit themselves fas shown on 

 page 5:53], where it is almost im- 

 possible to save all of the cells ? 



Before the cells are ready to 

 hatch they are placed in the nur- 

 sery. This is done without so 

 much as detaching them from the 

 stick. They are all an even dis- 

 tance apart, and this distance just 

 equals the distance between the 

 tin divisions in the nursery, so 

 that the cells can be lowered all at 

 once into the nursery, and each 

 cell has a little apartment all by 

 itself. If a queen hatches it can 

 do no damage, and it can find food 

 in the shape of soft candy placed 

 in a depression or cavity in the 

 top of the wooden plug that closes 

 the lower part of each little cage. 

 The queens are safe and well cared 

 for here until needed to put In 

 nuclei. 



It would seem that so far as se- 

 curing virgin queens is concerned, 

 we had pretty nearly reacht per- 

 fection. The great cost, however, 

 of rearing queens, is in getting 

 them fertilized and laying — the 

 nuclei and bees cost much more 

 than the queens. 



When this part of the business is 

 cheapened and simplified to the 

 same extent as has been done with 

 that of cell-building and queen- 

 hatching, queens may be sold for a 

 "quarter" — I ^uess. Some at- 

 tempts have been made in this di- 

 rection by having small frames, 

 section honey-boxes, for instance, 

 for nuclei, and massing them on 

 top of a colony of bees so that they 

 may derive warmth from the 

 colony ; but such methods have 

 never come into general use. It 

 is clear to me that there would be 

 some disadvantages. — Editorial in 

 Bee-Keepers' Review. 



