Queen-Rearing in England. 



I.— INTRODUCTION. 



The queen being the mother of all the bees in the hive, 

 the bee-keeper finds a supply of queens to be \ery valuable. 

 He can build up fresh colonies with them, and he can save, 

 or improve, colonies that already exist by introducing young 

 and vigorous queens to those that have lost their queen, or 

 to those in which the laying power of the queen has become 

 impaired through old age. Thus the population of the 

 apiary and its yield of honey can be greatly increased. 



Another and more important purpose of queen-rearing 

 is the improvement of the bee. The methods by which 

 domestic animals and cultivated plants have been rendered 

 more useful or more beautiful in the estimation of man, 

 namely, breeding by selection and crossing selected races 

 and varieties, may be applied to bees. In breeding bees 

 for improvement some of the greatest problems in bee-culture, 

 such as disease-resistance, the increase of honey-yield, the 

 improvement of temper, and the reduction of swarming, 

 have been attacked. This important subject is dealt with 

 in Chapter XI. 



Bee-keepers who are unable to devote the time and atten- 

 tion to queen-rearing that it needs will find a good and 

 simple method of obtaining a few queens described in 

 Chapter III., which has been made as much as possible 

 complete in itself. 



The frame for combs mentioned in this book is the 

 standard frame of the British Bee-keepers' Association 

 (outside dimensions, 8jin. deep by i4in. long, with top bar 

 lyin. long, which is used throughout the British Isles). 

 Most of the remarks, however, apply equally well to the 

 sizes of frames that have been adopted as standard in other 

 countries. It is advisable to have all the combs which are 

 used in the queen-rearing apiary built from full sheets of 

 foundation wired into the frames. 



B 



