828 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Topics of Interest. 



Metlioi of Handling Queen-Cells, 



C. A. BUNCH. 



As the swarming season is now at 

 hand, let us consider the proper way of 

 handling our queen-cells for^ increase ; 

 also, how to have them built.' We find 

 instructions in the bee-books as to how 

 the cells should be built, but they do not 

 lay stress enough on the careful hand- 

 ling of them. 



Suppose we have natural swarming, 

 and about eight days after the colony 

 casts a prime swarm, we proceed to cut 

 out and remove all queen-cells but one. 

 My experience has been that only a part 

 of th^e cells will produce first-class 

 queens, for the reason that the eggs in a 

 part of the cells may not hatch until 

 several days later, and the idea of having 

 the young queens loosened and shaken 

 down from the royal jelly, which is very 

 easily done, and then be good, prolific 

 queens, is very unreasonable, to me, at 

 least. 



I prefer to take each comb that has 

 but one cell, and carefully carry it, bees 

 and all, to the queenless hive, to have 

 her hatch and be fertilized, and the 

 combs that have more than one cell on 

 are put in a hive, examined three times 

 a day — morning, noon and night — and 

 as soon as a queen is iound hatched out 

 she is picked off the comb and run in at 

 the entrance of a queenless colony or 

 nucleus. A full colony should be queen- 

 less three days ; a two-frame nucleus 

 about twelve hours. 



I have used queen-cell protectors 

 slipped over the cells and fastened at the 

 top with one or two common brass pins, 

 but this is not always a success, as the 

 bees sometimes cut a bee-space around 

 the cell-protector, which, of course, 

 destroys the queen-cell. 



Now, this may look like a lot of fool- 

 ing, but such queens are valuable 

 property if in a hive and given a fair 

 chance. I have reared queens according 

 to the plan laid down in the "Handy 

 Book," and had nearly all the queens 

 hatch in an hour, and several to hatch 

 before I had time to cut the ripe cells off 

 the comb. Of course, these cells were 

 built in a queenless colony. 



Many thanks to Dr. C: C. Miller for 

 his way of having queen-cells built 

 below a queen-excluder ; it is an entire 

 success with me. I go to a good, strong 



colony that has a breeding queen, take 

 the comb, bees and queen out of the hive 

 — that is one comb — remove all combs 

 not occupied with brood, and proceed to 

 fill the hive with other combs, bees and 

 brood from other hives of good stock, 

 being careful not to bring the queen 

 along. 



Now, place a queen-excluder above 

 these combs, another hive on the queen- 

 excluding honey-board, and put the 

 queen and comb in the upper story, 

 filling out with other brood-combs 

 (empty combs will do). In about eleven 

 days I lift off the upper story and honey- 

 board, and carefully remove the combs 

 that have queen-cells on, place in comb 

 bucket and carry to queenless hives 

 where wanted. 



I find such colonies work well, and we 

 can use this hive again for queen-rear- 

 ing, as many bees will return from 

 combs taken away, but I would gather 

 up combs, bees and brood as before, and 

 place them under the queen-excluder. 

 By this plan the bees are not strictly 

 queenless, and have to pass down 

 through by the cells when going from 

 the queen to the field. I like the last 

 named way of having cells built, as the 

 bees are not entirely queenless, and we 

 are likely to have a fine cell built on 

 each comb just as I like to have them. 



As I stated in a report last Fall, my 

 crop of honey was less than 4 pounds per 

 colony. Spring count, so I was obliged 

 to feed the bees last Fall and this 

 Spring, altogether 280 pounds of gran- 

 ulated sugar. A few colonies — about 4 

 — starved, and about the same number 

 died with diarrhea, as the combs were 

 well loaded with pollen, and about 20 

 Spring dwindled. Altogether 28 out of 

 50 colonies perished. 



Nye, Ind. 



Anicnltnral Notes from NeteEa, 



J. M. YOUNG. 



Every bee-keeper should have a lawn 

 mower to keep down the grass and 

 weeds around the hives. 



" Aint they pretty," remarked a friend 

 the other day, while viewing my new 

 dovetailed hives. I have them painted 

 red to make a contrast among my white 

 ones. 



White clover is in full bloom now, and 

 furnishes a nice lot of honey for^ brood- 

 rearing, and just when we need it to 

 rear lots of bees for the basswood 

 honey harvest. I expect the basswood to 



