2 02 
DR. MILLER'S 
July 10 or IS to August 25 or September 1. How would this work? 
How are cells to requeen with? 
A. It ought to work all right. Requeening with cells is all 
right, only, of course, there will be less break in the rearing if 
laying queens are given. 
Q. I have lately bought 16 colonies of black bees. They went 
into the cellar on December 12, strong in bees and plenty of good, 
scaled stores. They are in fine condition, but as the hives are of 
all sizes and shapes, good for nothing but kindling wood, I shall 
transfer to my dovetailed hives. Do you think it would pay me 
to requeen them with good Italian stock early in the season? 
A. Requeening early in the season is sure to interfere, at least 
a little, with the building up of a colony, with the possibility of 
interfering a great deal in case there is some hitch in introducing. 
If you are requeening for the sake of having better stock to breed 
from, it may pay to do so early, even it it interferes greatly with 
the honey crop. But in your case you hardly want to interfere 
with the crop this season. So, perhaps you will do just as well 
to leave the old queens until after swarming, at least, if not until 
near the close of harvest, unless your queens are poor, when it 
would be best to requeen at once. 
Q. In one of my colonies I have a very prolific queen which 
I desire to breed from and requeen five other colonies. Later I 
wish to divide into two or three-frame nuclei and rear queens 
from this stock. Please advise the best method for me to pursue. 
A. It’s a bit hard to know just how to advise, there are so 
many ways of doing and so much depends upon circumstances, 
previous experience, and perhaps other things. In spite of the 
fact that I don’t like advertising, I will say that I think that you 
would get information enough on that one topic alone to make 
the purchase of “Fifty Years Among the Bees” a profitable in- 
vestment. But I’ll give you one way that ought to be successful, 
even if you have but little experience. Strengthen the colony 
with your choice queen by giving it brood with adhering bees 
from other colonies, so it will be the first to swarm. Call it A, 
and name the other colonies in the order of their strength, B, C, 
D, E, F. When A swarms, set the swarm on the stand of A, and 
A on the stand of B, and put B in a new place. A week later you 
can cut out the queen-cells and give them to C, D, E and F, having 
dequeened these a day previous. If, however, you want to operate 
in an easier way, after you have put A in place of B, it will be 
strengthened by receiving all the field bees of B as they return 
