The Rearing of Queens, 233 



CHAPTER IX. 



Queen Rearing. 



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 probable 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 colony, 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 results, to ever have at hand extra 

 queens. So the young apiarist must early learn 



HOW TO REAR QUEENS. 



As queens may be needed early in the spring, prepara- 

 tions 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 such feeding before the flowers yield pollen. 

 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 

 earlv feeding of meal, the bees can be induced to work 



