37 



is quite simple, and there are many reasons why a young queen should 

 always reign in a Jiive. A few of the foremost are as follows : An old 

 queen fails after the second year to lay sufficient eggs to keep up the 

 strength of the hive. Old queens are always more prone to swarming 

 than young ones, and to ensure a good honey crop swarming must be 

 kept in check as much as possible. When a colony swarms the old 

 queen goes with the swarm, and the old hive is left queenless for a few 

 days until the young queen emerges from her cell. Seven or eight more 

 days must elapse before she is mated and egg-laying commences ; so it 

 will be noted that a big loss of time in breeding is occasioned when a 

 colony swarms and is, too frequently, divided into two and very often 

 half a dozen portions through young queens emerging and going off 

 with a fresh contingent of bees. ' If this is allowed the old hive will 

 become so weak that no surplus honey will be produced, and even 

 feeding may have to be resorted to to keep them through the winter. 

 These young queens are often mismated, and if supplies of pure Italian 

 stock are not kept on hand in nuclei to replace those mismated the 

 apiary will gradually go back to a black strain. 



How TO TELL A PoOR QUEEN. 



1. The uneven appearance of the brood illustrates that the queen 

 does not lay regularly in every cell, but moves over the combs, laying 

 indiscriminately. 



2. Old queens are shiny-looking about the abdomen, and appear stiff 

 and slow in their movements. 



3. If the colony has available stores and only a small quantity of 

 brood the queen may be held responsible. 



4. When the bees are evident loafers it is often the fault of the queen. 

 Queens which are observed to be faulty in the above respects should 



be disposed of and a young queen installed in the place of each. 



How TO TELL A GoOD QuEEN. 



The essential qualities in a good queen are the reverse of the above. 

 She will lay her eggs regularly in circles, commencing in the middle of 

 a comb and working outward, so that as each comb of eggs develops 

 it will present a regular appearance. She will fUl each side of the comb 

 with a solid mass of brood, leaving only the edges free for pollen-storing, 

 and possibly the outer sides of the two outside combs. Any bits of 

 drone-comb wUl be left until the season is well advanced before eggs 

 are laid in them. 



QUEEN-REARING. 

 A beekeeper's problem is not so much how to rear queens, but how 

 to look after them from the time the ceUs are capped untU they are 

 mated and introduced to the hive. It is easy for those who are keeping 

 only a few hives for pleasure, and who do not look to their bees as a 

 source of revenue, for then time is not taken into consideration. The 

 old queen may be killed and a capped cell introduced to the colony ; 

 but this entails much loss, and means the hive would be without a 

 laying-mother for some considerable period. This method does not 

 meet with the large beekeeper's approval, whose ambition is to econo- 

 mize in time as much as possible. Ways and means adopted by him must 

 be on sound commercial lines, and proved to be efficient in every respect. 



The Swarthmore System. 



Assuming you have plenty of strong colonies in the apiary from 



which bees may be drawn, proceed in the following manner : Prepare 



a swarm-box .with two frames of comb, one containing a quantity of 



fresh water that has previously been sprinkled into the cells, and one 



