56 PRACTICAL QUEEN REARING 



for the honey producer to provide himself with a limited number 

 of queens with little trouble. The plan was so simple that it 

 made an instant appeal, and has been widely published and 

 generally used under the name of the Miller Plan. The author 

 probably can present the matter in no other way so well as to 

 copy Doctor Miller's original article concerning it from the 

 American Bee Journal, August, 1912: 



Yet it is not necessary to use artificial cells. The plan I use for 

 rearing queens for myself requires nothing of the kind. And it gives 

 as good queens as can be reared. I do not say that it is the best plan 

 for those who rear queens on a large scale to sell. But for the honey 

 producer who wishes to rear his own queens I have no hesitation in 

 recommending it. I have reared hundreds of queens by what are con- 

 sidered the latest and most approved plans for queen breeders; and so 

 think that I am competent to judge, and I feel sure that this simple 

 plan is the best for me as a honey producer. I will give it as briefly as 

 possible. 



Into an empty brood frame, at a distance of two or three inches 

 from each end, fasten a starter of foundation about two inches wide 

 at the top, and coming down to a point within an inch or two of the bot- 

 tom bar. Put it in the hive containing your best queen. To avoid 

 having it filled with drone-comb, take out of the hive, either for a few 

 days or permanently, all but two frames of brood, and put your empty 

 frame between these two. In a week or so you will find this frame 

 half filled with beautiful virgin comb, such as bees delight to use for 

 queen-cells. It will contain young brood with an outer margin of eggs. 

 Trim away with a sharp knife all the outer margin of comb which con- 

 tains eggs, except, perhaps, a very few eggs next to the youngest brood. 

 This you will see is very simple. Any beekeeper can do it the first time 

 trying, and it is all that is necessary to take the place of preparing arti- 

 ficial cells. 



Now put this "queen cell stuff," if I may thus call the prepared 

 frame, into the middle of a very strong colony from which the queen 

 has been removed. The bees will do the rest, and you will have as 

 good cells as you can possibly have with any kind of artificial cells. 

 You may think that the bees will start "wild cells" on their own comb. 

 They won't; at least they never do to amount to anything, and, of course, 

 you needn't use those. The soft, new comb with abundant room at 

 the edge, for cells, is so much more to their taste that it has a practical 

 monopoly of all cells started. In about ten days the sealed cells are 

 ready to be cut out and used wherever desired. 



This plan is especially useful to the novice or to the bee- 

 keeper wishing for but a few queens at one time. It is simple, 

 easy and never failing under any normal conditions. 



Our illustration, Figure 23, shows this method with four 

 strips of foundation used to start, instead of two as Doctor 

 Miller suggests in his article. 



