§ VII. QUEEN-REARING.
Perhaps the greatest advantage the movable-frame hive possesses is, that a full knowledge, can be attained of its exact state as regards the queen, the population, and the quantity of food in stock. During weather of a genial temperature the combs may on any fine day be inspected, and thus, a knowledge being gained of the deficiency existing in a hive, the necessary means may be adopted for supplying the want. Sometimes such an examination will verify the fears of the bee-keeper, when, having observed that his bees have ceased to carry in pollen, he has thereby received warning that the queen has been lost at some juncture when no successor to the throne could be provided. Such a hive has entered on a downward course and will dwindle away entirely, unless a queen should be given to it, or else some combs containing young brood not many days old (see [page 16]). By the latter method the bee-keeper will gain an opportunity of seeing the bees set about their wonderful process of raising a queen from the brood thus provided for them. If neither means is practicable the colony must be united to some other hive.
An ingenious little contrivance has been brought into use by continental bee-keepers, especially by Herr Kleine, a German pastor, to prevent the destruction alluded to. It consists of a small wire cage (in fact, a pipe cover), as represented in the annexed illustration, placed over a queen cell to protect it from the mother bee's animosity. It also serves to prevent the young queen, when hatched, from escaping; for she will have the same jealous feeling towards her sister princesses, should there be more in the hive. The bee-master may thus carefully remove and appropriate her.
Particular attention will have to be exercised to affix the cage into the comb by pressure, as far as the middle wall, but at no point must it touch the royal cell itself. As the cage will probably project so as to touch the adjoining comb, a little incision and removal of a portion may be necessary to allow space for it.
This covering need not be put over the cell until the egg is a little more than a week old. The animosity of the reigning queen does not generally manifest itself until the royal brood approaches maturity. These cells are unmolested on the tenth day, but on the eleventh day they may be found tenantless. Notwithstanding the apiarian's care and skill, many disappointments are frequently experienced in endeavouring to establish fertile young queens at the head of colonies.
Hives found to be queenless may be supplied either with matured queens or with queen cells. If the latter are sufficiently numerous, their introduction may easily be effected by exchanging a comb in each hive; if they have to be cut out and placed loosely in the new hive, a triangular piece of comb should then be removed with them, to be used as a block in preventing any pressure coming on them. A space must be cut out of the middle in the centre combs of the hive into which they are to be introduced. They must not be so loose as to be in danger of falling out, but if such seems likely a little melted wax should be applied with a feather. Special care must be exercised not to bruise the royal embryos, as a very slight pressure is likely to be fatal. It is important not to perform the operation till they are within three or four days of coming forth, which may be known to be the case from the brown look of the tops of the cells, the wax having been removed.
It is always easier to introduce royal brood into queenless hives than matured queens, because bees are reluctant to receive stranger queens, whilst they will tolerate one hatched in the hive, who will speedily depart to seek a drone. Bee-masters mostly use small hives for queen-rearing, as explained in the section on "Nucleus Hives" ([page 197]). It is not however indispensable to use other than the ordinary hives, and Mr. Langstroth gives the following as the very best mode of procedure. Place an empty hive on the top of a well-filled one, giving communication through crown and floor boards and turning their entrances opposite ways (one of his plans, by the bye, for procuring an artificial swarm). The young bees will many of them take to the upper hive—if not they must be enticed into it by food—and when there are sufficient of them, a brood comb with adhering bees must be inserted and the connection closed. After a few days this nucleus hive may be removed, a few steps at a time, and another, if desired, take its place and be raised in the same way. Queen-rearing operations must be confined to warm weather and when drones are abundant.
Royal cells are often built so close together that it is difficult to remove one without injuring another. As a remedy for this Dr. Dzierzon has made the important discovery that any convenient worker cell may be made to produce a queen by the removal to it of some of the royal jelly from an unsealed cell; by placing this on the inner margin of the cell selected, the bees will adopt and rear the larva as desired.