Rearing Queens. 169 



CHAPTER IX. 



QUEEN REAEING. 



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 prob- 

 able 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 col- 

 ony, 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 extra ones at 

 his command, it is imperative, would we secure the best re- 

 sults, to ever have at hand extra queens. So the young 

 apiarist must early learn 



HOW TO EEAE QUEENS. 



As queens may be needed early in the spring, preparations 

 looking to the rearing of queens must commence early. 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 8uch feeding 

 before the flowers yield pollen. Yet, 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 work readily at storing the material by dropping 

 a little honey on it. 



