Il6 THE BEEKEEPERS DIRECTORY. 



rearing queens as given in the " Beekeepers' Handy Book," will 

 start 10,000 queen-cells if as many eggs can be prepared and 

 given them. I will guarantee that to every egg about ready to 

 hatch when placed in the hive there will be a cell- cup started. 

 When I have a lot of eggs from a choice queen in the right con- 

 dition to start cells from, and the weather or other circilmstances 

 are such that 1 cannot prepare the proper nuirjber of colonies 

 for cell-building, the eggs and combs are prepared and placed in 

 a queenless colony. The next day, if convenient, I prepare 

 as many colonies as are needed for the number of cells to be 

 started and the cell-cups are divided among them. In this way 

 much valuable time is saved. 



An old queen neoosaary. 



Another condition that is absolutely necessary in order to rear 

 queens by this method is that the colony must have a queen at 

 least one year old. It would be impossible to rear queens by 

 this process in a colony having a prolific, young queen. Don't 

 attempt it. If the reader is well posted in bee culture he is not 

 ignorant of the fact that colonies having young queens, as a rule, 

 do not swarm. (These remarks do not apply to second swarms.) 

 Queens are usually one year old before any swarms issue. Here 

 is a hint which the experienced beekeeper will stop to consider, 

 as it is the key to this method of queen-rearing. When a queen 

 has lived two years and worked to her extreme egg-producing 

 capacity, she has seen her best days and will soon be superseded 

 by the bees. Upon this knowledge I based and conducted ex- 

 periments for the purpose of discovering some practical method 

 for rearing queens in a colony in which there is a fertile queen. 



I think every one who takes an interest in bee culture will ap- 

 preciate the advantages of this method for producing queens 

 over all others yet advanced. 



To read many of the descriptions of some of the operations 

 performed in the apiary, one gets an idea that they must be fussy 

 jobs ; no doubt this method seems to be a fussy one to conduct, 

 yet it is not. Of all the methods for rearing queens, I believe 

 this one involves the least labor and time. 



Bearing queens in full colonies during the honey harvest. 

 I have now explained the prime conditions that must always 



