CHAPTER XII 



QUEEN REARING 



Should a colony become queenless at a time when neither 

 eggs nor brood are present, it soon becomes extinct unless 

 supplied with a new queen. If, however, the hive 

 contain eggs or brood the bees set about replacing their 

 lost mother by constructing queen cells, but before so 

 doing valuable time is lost in fruitless search for their 

 missing queen. Hence it is more than probable that by 

 the time the bees fully realise their loss, all larvae in the 

 hive will have advanced considerably in development, 

 and queen rearing operations will perforce have to be 

 commenced by specially feeding larvse which may by 

 this time be fully three days old. 



Experience has shown that queens thus raised are not 

 so prolific or so vigorous as those raised from eggs 

 which have been destined from the start to produce 

 queens. Therefore in raising young queens the bee- 

 keeper should always take care that they are raised 

 from eggs and not from larvse. The system of queen 

 rearing devised by Mr H. W. Brice fully accomplishes 

 this object, and is best described in his own words. 



" Choose the best stock in the apiary, remove the 

 queen and sufficient bees and brood to form a good 

 nucleus, giving them one empty frame of comb, and 

 allow the original stock to raise queen cells. This they 

 will do first in their way and afterwards (if my advice 

 is followed) in the way the beekeeper desires. 



"(l) Shortly after the queen is removed the bees will 



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