1877. 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



187 



suit at any time by taking all tlie brood away 

 from any colony, and jjiving them only <me 

 comb containing tliis small larvie, and this 

 is just what we want for queen-rearing. 

 The secret of being able to send larvie for 

 (lueen rearing safely by mail, consists in 

 sending sucli as have this excess of food in 

 the cells, for if the weather is not too cool, 

 tiiey will grow and thrive for two or three 

 days, just as well, for aught I know, as if 

 they were in the parent hive ; when the food 

 is all consumed, they must starve, and this 

 illustrates the necessity of getting them into 

 a hive of bees just as soon as they are re- 

 ceived. It has been said that queens reared 

 during the time of natural swarmi)ig are su- 

 perior, but I think by securing this abund- 

 ance of food in the way indicated, we can 

 have them equally as good at any season 

 when bees are Hying freely. True it is some 

 trouble to remove all the brood combs from 

 a strong colony, and we therefore move the 

 colony hive and all, putting a new hive con- 

 taining our choice larvae in its stead. This 

 plan has never failed to give us fine queen 

 cells, and queens that were prolific and long 

 lived ; and it is so quickly done that a lot 6i 

 cells may be started every few days during 

 the season. Unless the new hive looks much 

 like the old one, the bees may but few of 

 them go into it, especially if the old one is 

 set so near at hand that they succeed in find- 

 ing it. Tills is an additional reason for hav- 

 ing your hives all just alike. We usually 

 place the removed hive at an opposite side 

 of the apiary. 



WHEN TO CUT OUT THE QUEEN CELLS. 



A queen is hatched in just 16 days from 

 ttie time the egg is laid, as a general rule ; 

 therefore we must take measures to have tlie 

 cells cut out before this time. The egg 

 hatches into the minute larviie, in just about 

 three days, and if you have used these, you 

 are to cut out your cells on the 12 th day after 

 you moved the colony. If you use a comb 

 containing larvai of all ages, the bees will be 

 pretty sure to use some that are 6 days old, 

 in which c ise you may have queens hatching 

 by the 10th after the larvae was given them, 

 aiid they mai/ get out a young queen as soon 

 as the 9th. It is these queens that are 

 hatched on the 9th or 10th day, that we have 

 reason to fear may be short lived ; hence our 

 warning to give them nothing for starting 

 queen cells but larvae so small as to be just 

 A isible to the naked eye. You will get these 

 ''y putting an empty comb between two 

 brood combs, as we have before directed, 

 until the eggs laid by the queen have just 

 connnenced to hatch. A frame of founda- 

 tion answers nicely. 



HOW TO CUT OUT THE QUEEN CELLS. 



Provide yourself with a very thin narrow 

 bladed pen-knife, and be sure that it is just 

 as shar]) as you can make it. If you have a 

 dull knife and it is necessary to cut between 

 two cells that are very close, you will very 

 likely break one or both oi)en. and then the 

 bees will be very apt to tear them down. 

 Cut them all out but one, and do it nicely. 

 If they are not too close together give con- 

 siderable room around the base or part that 



is attached to the comb. 



We will suppose yon have secured a fine 

 lot of cells, have succeeded in (aitting them 

 out nicely, and have them all shut up in a 

 little box where robber bees may not be try- 

 ing to steal the honey tiiat may liave been 

 started running in the operation of cutting 

 them out. Do not let the robbers discover 

 that honey may be i)ilfered by following you 

 around, or you may receive some stinging 

 lessons as a punishiiient for not being neat 

 and cleanly iu your work. 



The little hives, w(> will suppose, are se- 

 curely fastened on their shelves, and are all 

 ready for their occupants. Go to any strong 

 colony and gently lift out one of the central 

 combs. This you can do by sliding the 

 frame on each side a little away from it, or 

 if the combs are crannned with honey, you 

 may find it necessary to push a second or a 

 third one back a little. You can make room 

 to take out the first one quietly, in almost 

 any hive, if you manage properly. Now we 

 rather wish to find the (jueen, if we can by 

 not taking too much time, and so we look 

 over every comb carefully as we lift it out. 

 If you do not find her on the first comb, put 

 it in one of the little hives and take another. 

 Proceed in this way until you have removed 

 all the brood combs. As soon as you have 

 found the queen, you are to put her with the 

 comb she is on, iu an empty hive. Now you 

 can insert a cell in each comb as fast as you 

 take them from the hive, and then ])lace the 

 comb cell and all, in your nucleus hive. If 

 the comb contains hatching brood, the one 

 will be sufficient, but if the brood is partly 

 unsealed you had better put another beside 

 it, or the brood may be chilled cool nights. 

 You will probably make 5 good nuclei out of 

 a fair colony, the bees that are in the fields 

 will make another good one. and the old 

 queen with her one comb still another. If 

 you do not find the old queen, divide the 

 hive all the same, but do not insert any 

 queen cells imtil you find her. If yaw are so 

 unlucky as to not find her at all, wait until 

 the next morning, and then insert queen 

 cells iu all that have started some of their 

 own, for it is a sure indication of queenless- 

 ness to find a nucleus building queen cells. 

 Mark this, for I shall refer to it again. 



nOAV TO INSERT A QUEEN CELL. 



The di'avving abo\ e will probably make it 



