Apiculture. 



254 



(March 1908. 



you make up your mind to do this, you 

 can never hope to make a real success of 

 apiculture. 



REARING QUEENS. 



Remove a queen from a hive, leaving 

 plenty of unsealed brood, and in a few 

 days you will find the workers have 

 built cells something like an acorn in 

 shape in various parts of the comb. 

 These are queen-cells. But queens have 

 a market value ranging anywhere from 

 50 cents to Rs. 1,500 — the general average 

 for Europeans being about Rs. 3'00, but 

 the price very frequently going to Rs. 

 20 or Rs. 30. And since bees, in a natural 

 way, will only raise about a dozen cells, 

 enterprising queen-breeders have devised 

 a method of improving on Nature. 



First, they are careful to choose a very 

 strong colony, because the best queens 

 are reared in hives containing a very 

 large number of bees. This stock they 

 decide to use as the nursery. They then 

 make a frame of exactly the same dimen- 

 sions as the frames used in their hives, 

 but without a top-bar. It has, however, 

 a bar placed horizontally across it, whose 

 upper edge is 2J inches below the ex- 

 treme top of the side-bars. This is nailed 

 in position, and two lugs are fixed on to 

 the side-bars so as to form supports on 

 which the frame can hang. Then, with- 

 in the side-bars are fixed two thin strips 

 of wood 2 inches long, resting on the 

 horizontal bar, so that they reach up to 

 within half-an-inch of the tops of the 

 side-bars. These strips thus form a 

 support for another bar to be laid across 

 from end to end of the frame, which will 

 then take the place of the ordinary top- 

 bar of the frame. See Fig. I. 



A bar is now made, I inch wide and 

 | inch thick, long enough to rest easily 

 on the two supports ; and this is pierced 

 with about 12 or 14 holes of f inch dia- 

 meter. See Fig. II. This is called the 

 cell-bar. 



In Fig. Ill, I have tried to represent 

 the cell-cups. These are small solid 

 cylinders of wood of diameter sufficient 

 to allow them to pass easily into the 

 holes in the cell-bar, § inch long, but 

 with a flange at one extremity large 

 enough to prevent them from passing 

 right through the holes. Thus they will 

 hang in the holes and can be easily 

 drawn out. At their other extremity 

 a shallow hollow is scooped out, § inch 

 deep and \ inch across, forming a little 

 cup. A dozen or so grafting-plugs are 

 also required. These are exactly like 

 cell-cups, only that no cap is hollowed 

 out in their base. They are used to fill 

 up any of the holes in the cell- bar that 

 it is not wished to fill with cell-cups. It 

 is useful to paint the upper end of the 



cell-cups white and the grafting-plugs 

 black, so as to be able to see in a 

 moment which are cups and which mere 

 dummies. And the date of grafting can 

 be pencilled on the white surface of 

 the cups. 



Lastly, a grafting-needle is required. 

 But a fine quill, clean and pointed like a 

 pen and the point turned back slightly 

 to form a sort of scoop, will answer the 

 purpose perfectly. And nursery-cages 

 are necessary for extensive operations. 

 See Fig. IV. I will refer to them 

 later. 



All the lower part (i.e., below the hori- 

 zontal bar) is to be filled with comb. 

 It is best to fill it with foundation ; but 

 when dealing with mee-mesna (at any 

 rate, until we get foundation made of 

 size suitable for these bees) it will be 

 preferable to place a thin strip of starter- 

 foundation along under the horizontal 

 bar. A 25-inch wide strip of wood 

 must be placed over the horizontal bar 

 to prevent the bees building comb there. 

 Then, when the lower part is nicely 

 filled with comb, we are ready for the 

 main operation. 



Take a frame of brood from the hive 

 you have selected to rear your queen 

 from, and, after paring down the walls 

 of some of the cells, with the grafting- 

 needle lift out a grub and place it in one 

 of the cell-cups, which have been pre- 

 viously lined with wax, The grub 

 should not be a big one ; nor should you 

 take an egg. But it should be just be- 

 ginning to assume a curved shape. If 

 possible— though it is not absolutely 

 necessary, but it insures more perfect 

 success — the cup should have been pre- 

 viously dressed with a little "royal 

 jelly." The strip of wood is removed 

 and the cell-bar placed across the frame, 

 and the grafted cups inserted. Your 

 nursery-hive is then deprived of its 

 queen, and the frame placed in the very 

 middle of the brood-nest. 



Two days after grafting, lift out the 

 cups one by one, replacing them tempo- 

 rarily with grafting-plugs, and examine 

 whether the grub has been accepted. If 

 it has, it will have become enormously 

 fat from its special feeding ; and any 

 cups that have not "taken" can be re 

 grafted. When the cups are sealed over, 

 you can do as you please with them. 

 Meanwhile, it is important to recollect 

 one or two points in dealing with 

 embryo queens. Cells should never be 

 touched by the hand— a slight pressure 

 might impair the future queen's laying 

 powers — nor should they be exposed to 

 direct sunlight or cold. Remember that, 

 though the day be warm and sunny, a 

 wind is always chilling, 



