64 PRACTICAL QUEEN REARING 



jelly is placed in each of the prepared cups, so that a well sup- 

 plied queen cell will provide a sufficient quantity to supply 

 thirty to fifty of them. 



If no cells containing jelly are found, the usual plan is to 

 remove the queen from a vigorous colony and permit them to 

 start cells. The author very much dislikes to remove queens 

 except when absolutely necessary, and prefers some other 

 plan. A simple way is to place a wire cloth over the top of a 

 strong colony in place of the cover. On this set a hive body 

 containing at least three frames of brood in the various stages, 

 being sure that there is no queen on the frames, and that there 

 is plenty of newly hatched larvae. All adhering bees should be 

 left on the combs. The cover is then placed over all and the 

 hive left closed for two days, when there will be an abundant 

 supply of royal jelly available. 



The Author's Plan. 



The author, not being engaged in queen rearing commer- 

 cially, can choose a favorable time for rearing such queens as 

 are necessary to make increase or for requeening. While the 

 method seldom fails even under unfavorable conditions with 

 him, it is very possible that it might not be satisfactory under 

 some conditions. 



To begin with, the queen is found and placed, on the comb 

 on which she is, in an empty hivebody. Sometimes the remain- 

 der of the space is filled with empty drawn combs, sometimes 

 one or more frames of brood are added, as circumstances dic- 

 tate. The hivebody containing the queen is then placed on 

 the hivestand in the position where the colony had already been, 

 placed. Above the hiA-ebody containing the queen is placed a 

 queen excluder, to prevent the queen from going above. If 

 the weather is warm so that there is no longer any danger 

 of chilling brood from dividing the cluster into two parts, an 

 empty set of extracting combs is placed over the excluder. 

 The original hive containing most of the brood is now placed 

 on top of this empty chamber. Twenty-four hours later the 



