50 



ADVANCED BEE-CULTURE. 



drawback to profitable queen rearing in 

 the North, is the shortness of the season. 

 If I were intending to make queen rear- 

 ing my business for life, I should think 

 seriously of moving to some one of the 

 Southern States. The income from queen 

 rearing is more of a certainty than that 

 from honey production. If the blossoms 

 yield sparingly, no surplus can be secured , 

 but nearly, or quite, as many queens can 

 be reared. The number of queens that 

 can be reared is more a question of time 

 than of honey flow. Although a steady 

 and moderate flow of honey is the most 

 desirable for queen rearing, yet queens 

 can be reared, and at a profit too, by 

 feeding the bees. 



The great expense in queen rearing is 

 that of nuclei for keeping the queens un- 

 til they are fertilized and laying. Get- 

 ting of the cells is not expensive. If I 

 were in the queen business I should be 

 willing to furnish cells just read}' to hatch, 

 or just hatched virgin queens, at ten cents 

 each. Advertising, cages, postage, etc., 

 all cost something, but I doubt if all these, 

 combined with the cost of cells, equal 

 the expense for nuclei. I think a great 

 many have their queen rearing nuclei 

 stronger than is really necessary. With 

 large combs this may be necessary, but 

 if queen rearing is to be a specialty, let 

 the hives, combs, and other appliances be 

 adapted to the business. I have always 

 admired the small combs used by Mr. 

 Alle}'. They are only about four or five 

 inches square, and three or four in a 

 hive. Half the bees that would cover 

 one Langstroth comb would stock such a 

 nucleus. I have often thought I should 

 like to engage in queen rearing, using 

 sections an inch and a-half wide for frames, 

 and the old style Heddon surplus case 

 for a nucleus hive, having four nuclei in 

 each case. I have used sections for combs, 

 and put them in an old style Heddon 

 case for a hive, making eight little nuclei 

 in each super, and used them for keeping 

 laying queens when there was a dearth 

 of orders. I used three sections for each 

 nucleus. The queen would fill the 

 (.ombs with eggs in about a day, and then 



go over them again. About this time 

 there would be discontent and swarming- 

 out; and the only way to remedy this was 

 to cover each entrance with a piece of 

 queen-excluding zinc which would pre- 

 vent the queen from leaving the hive; 

 when, of course, the bees would return. 

 Quite a number of queen breeders have, 

 of late, been successful in getting queens 

 fertilized in these little nuclei, placed 

 over a full colony, the latter furnishing 

 the needed heat that these small clusters 

 of bees seem unable to generate. 



Mr. Doolittle makes artificial 

 ■en cells, or rather the base 

 cells, by dipping a round- 

 iiited stick into melted wax, 

 owing the wax to cool, then 

 )ping again, not quite so deep- 

 ami continuing the process 

 til the wax is of sufficient 

 ckness, when it is slipped off 

 ; stick. These little wax 

 ps are stuck to a stick, and 

 :o each cup is transferred a 

 5t hatched larvse from the egg 

 some choice queen. A little 

 oyal jelly" is also placed 

 3uud each larvae, when the 

 ck is fastened into a frame of 

 I mb, an opening being made 

 the comb, beneath the cells, 

 d the frame hung in a colony 

 epared for cell building. The 

 es proceed to nurse the larvae 

 d finish up the cells, and 

 hen they are "ripe," the cells 

 n be pulled off the stick as 

 sily as we pull cherries from 

 branch. 



Mr. Alley cuts comb contain- 

 "K sggs into strips, then de- 

 stroys each alternate egg by introducing 

 into the cell the brimstone end of a match 

 and giving it a twirl. Each strip of comb 

 is fastened into a small frame and given 

 to queenless bees. 



The advantage of these methods are 

 that one choice queen may be made to 

 furnish eggs for all the cells that can pos- 

 sibly be needed, and each cell is built by 

 itself. Unless some such precautions are 



