and its Economic Management. 273- 



a full hive of bees to build up wfth again, and thus pro- 

 vide against loss, also having combs of eggs to spare for 

 the nuclei. 



The Young Queens 



may be mated from their seventh day until they are as 

 much as four weeks old. In fair weather, the rule is for 

 them to be laying in ten or eleven days from hatching; 

 but through unfavourable weather, I have had a number of 

 queens under the closest observation failing to mate until 

 the twenty-eighth day, and then successfully, having seen 

 them come in with the drone attachment and in due course 

 produce properly capped brood. I have had many mated 

 at twenty-one to twenty-five days, while I have on several 

 occasions seen queens return more than once with evidence 

 of a successful union with the drone. 



However, when a queen gets much beyond fourteen 

 days, it requires the most sunny and calm spell to enable 

 her to become successful in securing a mate, though 

 such days are, of course, always desirable. Young and 

 vigorous queens will occasionally fly at an opportune 

 moment, and become successful in somewhat windy wea- 

 ther. But the temperature must not be low. It is 

 only under a high temperature with little or no wind that 

 general success is attained where queens are reared on a 

 large scale. 



Nuclei should be constantly renovated by the addition 

 of fresh brood, whether they are to be soon united or 

 not ; and they should always be in possession of stored 

 combs, in preference to any form of daily feeding, other 

 than Simmins' dry feeders. 



Eggs for Queen Raising 



are more readily obtained from our select queens if 

 the latter are in small colonies, having not more than 



s 



