24 



ARKANSAS EXPERIMENT STATION 



ony, and to introduce these at any time except in yi^tej;^ (^or 

 methods of Introducing queens see page 25). In this case un- 

 tested queens are recommended for several reasons. In the hrst 

 place they are cheaper than tested queens, and in buying a nanr- 



PIG. 3. A. Unsealed queen cell. B. Inserted cell, C. Unfinished cell, 

 D. Cell just begun. (Electrotype furnished by Dadant and Sons.) 



her of them quite a saving can be made. Furthermore, if the 

 queens are purchased from reliable breeders; they will almost 

 always be as represented and produce only pure stock. Worthy 

 of consideration is also the fact that tested queens are more likely 

 to be injured while being shipped, than are untested queens Au 

 untested queen is one that has mated and has begun to lay. A 

 tested queen is one that is kept by the breeder for a little more 

 than three weeks after she has begun to lay, when he is able to 

 determine by the color of her worker offspring whether she is 

 purely mated or not. 



If the beekeeper has plenty of time he may Italianize his 

 colonies by another method involving very little expense. By 

 purchasing three or four tested Italian queens and introducing 

 them in the most prosperous colonies, these will be Italianized 

 in about six weeks. After the main honey flow is over one or 

 several of these colonies are selected for queen rearing. By 

 making a colony queenless, the workers will be induced to rear 

 queens. By examining such a colony about ten days after the 

 queen has been removed often as many as ten or twelve queen 

 cells can be found. When the queen cells have been sealed up 

 they are carefully removed with a sharp knife from the combs, 

 and one queen cell is then given to each colony to be requeened. 

 Each of these colonies must be made queenless about 12 hours 

 before the queen cells are introduced, otherwise the bees may not 

 accept them. The cells are inserted in the combs by cutting 

 out a place just large enuf to receive them and hold them in the 



