CHAPTER IX. 



REARING AND INTRODUCING QUEENS. 



So much of tlie bee keeper's success depends upon the strength of 

 liis colonies, and this in turn upon the character of tlie queens lieading 

 these coh)nies, that he needs to be well informed as to what constitutes 

 a really good queen and how to i)roduce such, and, having this knowl- 

 edge, it will be profitable to be constantly on the alert to see that all 

 colonies are supplied with the best queens j)rocurable. With a queen 

 from a poor strain of bees, or an unprolific one from a good strain, a 

 colony, even in a season of abundant honey secretion, will give little or 

 no return, while the seasons are not frequent during which one given 

 a fair start and having a large, prolific queen of an active honey- 

 I^roducing strain can not collect a fair surplus beyond its own needs. 

 Admitting this, it will be plain to all that queen bees differ proportion- 

 ately in value as much as horses or cattle, and the keeper of bees who 

 does not know how to select and produce the best can not be called a 

 beemaster. 



When bees swarm they generally leave a number of sealed queen 

 cells in the parent colony. With blacks and Italians there are usually 

 6 to 10; rarely more than a dozen. Carniolans generally construct 

 about two dozen, but under favorable conditions can be induced to 

 build 75 to 100 good cells at a time. Fig. 62 represents a comb from a 

 hive of Carniolans which had built at one time 70 queen cells. 

 Cyprians usually make 30 or 40 queen cells, but may greatly exceed 

 this number under the best conditions, while Syrians nearly always 

 exceed it, sometimes even building as many as 200; and the writer 

 has seen 350 cells constructed at one time by a single colony of bees 

 in Tunis. It might be thought that where so many were constructed 

 only a small j)r()i)ortion of them Avould i)rodu('e good (pieens. Such is not 

 the case, however; for in general a nuich larger proportion of the cells 

 formed by these eastern races ])roduce well-developed queens. But in 

 all hives some queen cells are undersized. This may be because they 

 are kx^ated near the bottom or sides, where space for full development 

 is lacking, but in many instances it arises from the fact that they are 

 formed last, and larvjcthat are really too old to make full sized, perfect 

 queens have to be used. These smaller cells are usually smooth on the 

 outside and show thin walls. In selecting cells only the large, slightly 

 tapering ones, an inch or more in length and straight, should be savctl. 



87 



