566 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Fur tbe American Bee JoumaL 



Those Virgin ftueens. 



G. M. DOOLITTLK. 



From the many letters of inquiry 

 which I am getting, I do not think I 

 can please the readers of the Bee 

 Journal better than to tell them 

 just how I work from beginning to 

 end, in getting and introducing my 

 virgin queens ; and as I have not lost 

 a single queen this season, in using 

 the plan, it speaks well for it, consid- 

 ering that we have had the worst sea- 

 son here for the iiueen-business that 

 I have ever known. 



First, I get the queen-cells which 

 are generally matured by natural 

 swarming or on the Alley-plan. 

 When these cells are nearly ready for 

 the young (lueens to hatch from them, 

 I make a queen nursery as follows : 

 Sixteen blocks are gotten out, 2?8 

 inches by 2^8 by 1 incli. which blocks 

 exactly fill one of my frames ; a IJ^- 

 inch liole is bored in the centre of 

 each of these blocks, over which is 

 tacked a piece of wire-cloth having 

 12 meshes to the inch, and being 2 

 inches square. Before tacking on the 

 wire-cloth, I bore in one edge of the 

 block (wliich is designed for the top 

 after the block is put in the frame) a 

 ^-inch liole, boring it down to within 

 % of an inch of the l}>^-ineh hole. I 

 now finish boring the hole with a Jo- 

 inch bit. This hole is for the queeii- 

 cell to be placed in. and the reason for 

 the two sizes of holes is to give a 

 shoulder so that the queen-cell can 

 hang in the block the same as it does 

 on a comb, and still be in no danger 

 of slipping through into the block. 

 This hole is bored a little to one side 

 of the centre, so as to allow room for 

 a %-inc\i hole on the other side, which 

 hole is to receive the candy (the same 

 as made for shipping-cages) on which 

 the young queens feed. Tliis >^-incli 

 hole is so bored that it conies out 

 near one side of the IJ^-inch hole, 

 and when it is deep enough so tliat a 

 hole large enough for the queen to 

 enter is made, stop boring: for we 

 need a shoulder at the bottom to keep 

 the candy in place. 



Now fill the hole with candy, packing 

 it in with a 7-lG-inch plunger, and tack 

 on the wire-cloth when the blocks or 

 cages are ready for the cells. Cut the 

 cells off of the comb very carefully, 

 for if handled roughly, I lind that the 

 queen will either not hatch at all or 

 else she will have an imperfect wing 

 or leg. Trim the base of the cell till 

 it will go easily into the :^^-inch hole, 

 and just before placing it in the cage, 

 take a little honey and put it around 

 the point of the cell just where the 

 queen will gnaw through in hatching 

 from the cell. I formerly found many 

 dead queens in the cages, and wond- 

 dered at it, till by watching, I found 

 that as soon as a q\ieen got a smatl 

 opening through the cell, she would 



put out her tongue and the bees would 

 reed her, thus giving her strength to 

 become quite active as soon as she 

 hatched : while if not thus fed, she 

 would be very w^eak, and often-times 

 would die. I5y placing the honey 

 around the point of the cell, the 

 queen is fed the same as if the bees 

 had access to the cell, and it is a rare 

 thing that I now find one dead in the 

 cage. 



After the cells are all in the cages, 

 the frame made to receive them is 

 placed on a board having a cleat 

 nailed on it, when it (the board) is 

 stood up nearly perpendicular, so that 

 the frame rests on the cleat. Now 

 put in the cages as carefully as pos- 

 sible, so as not to jar them, remem- 

 bering always to keep the cells in the 

 same upright position that they occu- 

 pied in the hive. 



When all are in, the frame of cages 

 or queen-nursery is to be hung in a 

 populous colony in place of one of the 

 central frames of brood. In all these 

 operations with queen-cells, the tem- 

 perature of the place where you work 

 should be from 8.5° to 9.5^, for a lower 

 temperature will darken the color of 

 the queens, and otherwise injure 

 them, if exposed to it any length of 

 time. 



This nursery is used year after year, 

 the only precaution necessary being 

 to see that the candy in the i^-inch 

 hole is kept fresh Jind moist by re- 

 newing or placing a little honey on 

 the top of it. so it can soak through 

 every time a new lot of cells are 

 placed in it. The blocks can also be 

 varied to suit any sized frame, or meet 

 the notions of "the most fastidious. 

 If all has been done as it should be, 

 you will find in 48 hours, upon lifting 

 it from the hive, a nursery full of as 

 bright lively queens as you ever saw, 

 when the next thing to "be done is to 

 get them introduced where you wish 

 them, or into nuclei if you" are en- 

 gaged in the queen-business. 



For an introducing-cage, I take a 

 piece of wire-cloth 4 mches square of 

 the same kind as before mentioned, 

 and roll it around a J^-inch rod which 

 gives me a tube, after the sides are 

 sewed together, li^ inches in diameter 

 by 4 inches long. Into one end I fit 

 a permanent stopper, and for the 

 other end I make a plug II4 inches in 

 diameter by IJ2' inches long. In the 

 centre of one end of this I bore a ,^8- 

 inch hole 1 inch deep, wliich is to re- 

 ceive a piece of comb cut from a 

 frame of unsealed honey, which piece 

 of comb should just fit the hole, with 

 the cells standing endwise toward the 

 cage, when this stopper is put in. 



I at first used the same food in 

 these cages that I used in the nur- 

 sery, but often having nearly ^ of 

 the queens die in the cages, I adopted 

 the above, and have not lost a single 

 one since. To cut these pieces of 

 comb, I make a punch of tm of the 

 right size, and long enough to be 

 convenient, which is ground sharp at 

 the lower end before the tin is rolled 

 up. If it is ground all from one side, 

 and the ground side left on the out- 

 side, you will not be bothered with 

 the piece of comb becoming wedged 

 in the punch. To use the punch 



easily, twirl it around at the same 

 time you push down. To get the 

 queens out of the nursery-cages into 

 the introducing-cage, I place the 

 nursery-cage near a window and re- 

 move the now empty queen-cell, plac- 

 ing the open end of the introducing- 

 cage over the hole which is opened by 

 the removal of the cell. If the queen 

 should not readily run up into the 

 cage (a thing she seldom fails to do), 

 I leave the cages in place and fix the 

 next one in the same way, and so on, 

 taking care of each queen as soon as 

 she enters the introducing-cage, by 

 putting in the provisioned stopper 

 and placing her in a basket. To- 

 secure the best results, the queens 

 should be about 8 days old when 

 placed in the introducing-cages. but a 

 difference of two days either way 

 will make no great difference. • 



Having as many queens in my 

 basket as I wish. I go to the bee-yard, 

 catch the queen which I wish to super- 

 sede, place one of the cages contain- 

 ing a virgin queen on top of the J 

 frames, and close the hive. If a I 

 honey-board is used instead of a quilt 

 or sheet of enameled cloth, the frames 

 will have to be spread apart and the 

 cage placed between the combs. I 

 now mark the hive by some means 

 which will tell me that a queen is 

 caged, and the date, when I wait five 

 days ; at the end of this time I go to 

 the hive, raise the quilt and remove 

 the provisioned stopper from the cage, 

 when the hive is again closed and the 

 queen allowed to go out whenever she 

 chooses, as it is a shorter job than it 

 is to wait for her to go out while you 

 are there, for some of them are per- 

 sistent in sticking to the cage, es- 

 pecially if a worker-bee enters the 

 cage before the queen goes out. 



I told you when I wrote on this 

 subject before, that in five minutes 

 after the release of tbe queen, I had 

 seen her and the bees destroying the 

 queen-cells, which was true, and up ta 

 .July I found all cells destroyed in 24 

 hours after the queen was released ; 

 but as soon as the honey began to 

 come in. I found that a "part of the 

 colonies would keep their cells and 

 not destroy them ; so in 24 hours after 

 ■I take out the stopper, I look over the 

 combs and cut oft the queen-cells 

 when not destroyed. I left some to 

 see what would become of it, and the 

 young queens were not molested till 

 after they were fertilized, when, upon 

 the hatching of a queen from the 

 cells they had protected, they drove 

 out the fertilized queen and held to 

 the young one. In one case the 

 queen went to laying with the first 

 hatched queen in" the hive, and was 

 taken out after she had been laying -5 

 days, when in "i days more the other 

 wa"s laying ; so I had two laying 

 queens from a nucleus in 5 days; but 

 it does not generally work in that 

 way, so I destroy the cells as given 

 above. By using the above plan. I 

 have secured a laying queen from a 

 nucleus every s to 10 dfays during this 

 season, which is quite a saving of 

 time over the old or cell-plan. 



In not a single case out of several 

 hundred have I had a virgin queen 

 killed, except bv leaving tlie cells in 



