The Rearing of Queens. 233 
CHAPTER IX. 
QUEEN REARING. 
Suppose the queen is laying two thousand eggs a day, 
and that the full number of bees is forty thousand, or even 
more—though as the bees are liable to many accidents, and 
as the queen does not always lay to her full capacity, it is 
quite probable that this is about an average number—it 
will be seen that each day that a colony is without a queen 
there is a loss equal to about one-twentieth of the working 
force of the colony, and this a compound loss, as the 
aggregate loss of any day is its special loss augmented by 
the several losses of the previous days. Now, as queens 
are liable to die or to become impotent, and as the work of 
increasing colonies demands the absence of queens, unless 
the apiarist has éxtra ones at his command, it is imperative, 
would we secure the best results, to ever have at hand extra 
queens. So the young apiarist must early learn 
HOW TO REAR QUEENS. 
As queens may be needed early in the spring, prepara- 
tions looking to the rearing of queens must commence 
eariy. As soon as the bees are able to fly regularly, we 
must see that they have a supply of bee-bread. If there is 
not a supply from the past season, and the locality of the 
bee-keeper does not furnish an early supply, then place 
unbolted flour, that of rye or oats is best, in shallow troughs 
near the hives. It may be well to give the whole apiary 
the benefit of such feeding before the flowers yield pollen. 
I have found that here in Central Michigan, bees can 
usually gather pollen by the first week of April, which 
I think is as early as they should be allowed to fly, and in 
fact as early as they will fly with sufficient regularity to 
make it pay to feed the meal. I much question, after some 
years of experiment, if it ever pays at this place to give the 
bees a substitute for pollen. If one’s locality demands this 
early feeding of meal, the bees can be induced to worl. 
