MANUAL OF THE APIARY. 163 



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 the bees are liable to so 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 quetai there is a loss 

 equal to about one-twentieth of the working force of the 

 colony, and this is 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, to be- 

 come impotent, and as the act 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 BEAR QUEENS. 



As queens may be needed by the last of May, preparations 

 looking to the early rearing of queens must commence early. 

 When preparing the colonies for winter the previous autumn, 

 be sure to place some drone-comb somewhere near the centre 

 of the colony that has given the best results the previous 

 season. In March, and certainly by the first of April, see 

 that all colonies have plenty of bee-bread. If necessary, 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. Yet, 

 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 



