46 A. AND M. COLLEGE APIARY. 



queens can pass at all. Above the lower part of the trap is a separate 

 compartment, having openings leading into it from below, large enough 

 to admit queen or drones, and covered with a cone of wire netting. The 

 queen, in attempting to escape from the hive with the emerging swarm, 

 finding herself unable to pass through the smaller openings, passes into 

 the upper compartment and is trapped. The trap and all can now be 

 removed by the apiarist, The old hive is removed and a new located 

 in its place AS before, and when the swarm returns the queen is released 

 from the trap and allowed to enter with them. This same device is also 

 used for catching the drones from a colony where they are no longer 

 needed for fertilizing queens, or where the drones come of stock which 

 we do not wish to mate with select queens. The entrance guard, shown 

 in Fig. 25, is used in a similar way, except that it will not trap either 

 drones or queens, although it will prevent them leaving the hive. This 

 is especially useful to prevent the flying of drones from undesirable col- 

 onies when the mating of young queens is in process. 



In former years "artificial swarming," or "division," was frequently 

 resorted to as a method of increase. Except in the hands of an expe- 

 rienced manager, and where rapid increase is the only thing desired, this 

 should not be undertaken. Among experienced bee keepers it is not now 

 generally practiced. 



QUEEN REARING. 



Queen rearing is a highly specialized branch of the industry, and in 

 a bulletin like the present it is not deemed advisable to give the methods 

 in use. The average bee keeper should know, however, what to do in case 

 any of his colonies become queenless, through careless handling, acci- 

 dent, or otherwise. When a colony becomes queenless and there are 

 any eggs or very young larvae in the hive they will rear a queen them- 

 selves without further intervention. If, however, they are "hopelessly 

 queenless," that is, have neither brood, eggs nor queen, they can be given 

 a frame of young brood from another colony, when they will proceed 

 as before to rear a queen. In preference to the above, the bee keeper 

 may also purchase a queen from some of the queen breeders who make 

 a specialty of rearing them. Under present conditions, and considering 

 the cheapness of queens, it will not pay the amateur bee keeper to rear 

 queens of his own. They can be purchased at about the following prices: 

 untested, $0.65 to $1.00; tested, $0.85 to $1.50, according to the season 

 of the year. An "untested" queen is one which has been fertilized 

 and has already deposited eggs, but which has not been kept sufficiently 

 long to see that her bees, when matured, prove that she was mated to a 

 drone of fhe same race as herself. A "tested" queen is one that is not 

 only known to be mated, but is positively known to be purely mated; 

 that is, to a drone of her own race. To distinguish these from a queen 

 that has not been mated, the latter is designated as a "virgin queen." 

 The bee keeper who wishes to study queen rearing in detail, with a view 

 to rearing his own queens, should consult some of the text-hooks upon 

 bee culture, all of which discuss queen rearing methods, and one in par- 

 ticular "Scientific Queen Bearing," by G. M. Doolittle is devoted 

 entirely to the subject. That the bee keeper may know where first-clas^ 

 queens may be obtained, we append herewith a list of those queen breed- 



