QUEEN REARING S 



that time. Whenever one attempts to requeen a hundred colonies he must 

 expect twenty to lose their first virgins. So requeening as a general thing 

 must be left over till the honey flow ends. 



For obtaining the best cells outside the swarming season two excellent 

 methods may be used. Only one of these, the simpler, will be discussed 

 here. 



Preparation of Cell Building Colonies 



The first thing necessary is the preparation of cell building colonies. 

 Such colonies may be prepared by adding to them combs of hatching brood 

 till they each contain ten full combs. This should be done ten days before 

 they are expected to build any cells, so that in the interim many thousands 

 of young bees may emerge from the brood. If such strong colonies already 

 exist in the apiary, of course it is not necessary to add anything to them. 

 Besides being strong the colony selected should be composed of dark, 

 cross bees, the darker and crosser the better. Such bees build more and 

 better cells than light Italians. If one could get Carniolan or Caucasian 

 bees for cell building he would do better still. 



Selection of Breeder 



Having provided for the cell building colony to be ready at a given 

 date one must prepare for the larvae to be used on that date. The first 

 step is to select a breeding queen and put her into a weak colony, a col- 

 ony not to exceed three combs of brood. If one possesses a particularly de- 

 sirable queen in a strong colony he may take away from her all except 

 three combs of brood and then move her hive to a new hive stand so that 

 she will be left with few bees as well as few combs of brood. Such a 

 weak colony will now build worker comb and the queen will probably lay 

 only worker eggs, whereas strong colonies build mostly drone comb and 

 their queens lay drone eggs in every available drone cell. An additional 

 reason for keeping a choice breeding queen in a weak colony is that- by so 

 doing her egg laying is restricted and her life prolonged. 



The Comb of Larvae 



The frame to hold the prospective cells may be prepared by inserting 

 in an ordinary new frame three short strips of foundation leaving two inches 

 between strips, and hanging it in the center of the weak colony containing 

 the breeding queen. These strips should not be over an inch deep. When 

 provided with honey or sugar sirup each day the bees will commence to 

 .construct comb on these foundation strips. As explained above, being 

 weak, they will construct only worker comb and the queen will follow them 

 and deposit eggs in the cells as fast as they are built. Care must be taken, 

 however, that these bees carry in food each day. The presence of an 

 abundance of honey in the hive does not induce comb building; only in- 

 coming food does that. 



In from six to ten days the bees will have a comb constructed in the 

 form of three lobes reaching half way to the bottom bar, each lobe repre- 

 senting one of the original strips of foundation. Because of the lobes the 

 distance along the margin from one end of the comb to the other is in- 

 creased and it is to secure this effect that the three short strips of founda- 

 tion are used instead of one long one. The cells along the margin will con- 

 tain eggs, those along the top bar advanced larvae (perhaps sealed), and^ 

 those between, larvae in all intermediate stages. 



