Improved Queen-Rearing; or, How to Rear Large, Prolific, Long-Lived Queen Bees / The Result of Nearly Half a Century's Experience in Rearing Queen Bees, Giving the Practical, Every-day Work of the Queen-Rearing Apiary

by Henry Alley

TO PROCURE EGGS FOR CELL-BUILDING; WHERE TO KEEP THE BREEDING-QUEEN

If only a few queens are to be reared, the mother bee may be kept in a full colony; and if a few dozen queens only are required, I advise placing a comb that the queens have used once or twice for brood in the centre of a large colony. In about five days this comb should contain several thousand eggs. Now some good queens can be reared on this comb by the plan given as the nucleus system; but if you like to work with bees for amusement and experiment, try the plan I shall now give.

When a large number of queens are to be reared, it will be found a good plan to keep the breeding queen in a small hive having frames about five inches square, with five frames to a hive. I have used such an arrangement a great many years as above stated, and find it superior, in many ways to a full sized frame for getting eggs for cell-building. By this plan no combs are cut or mutilated when a few eggs are wanted, whereas if full frames are used many good combs will necessarily be destroyed during the season. Then again, it is very much more trouble and work to open a large hive than a small one when necessary to have some eggs to use. Any person rearing queens feels the need of time saving devices, as there is always something to do when queen-rearing is going on; I have found it so every day during the season.

One of the small combs will contain enough eggs for fifty queen-cells, and a good prolific queen will fill such a comb and put an egg in every cell during each twenty-four hours. Does not the reader see that by this arrangement there are always fresh eggs at hand, and the exact age of the eggs can be known to within almost an hour?

This one thing alone is a great point with me in my system of queen-rearing, as I can know, and so can any one who practices this method, just when to prepare bees for cell-building.

If a comb containing eggs is removed every day and a clean comb inserted in its place, cell-building can go on every day in the week; and that is the right way to do if a supply of queens is to be kept up to meet the demands of customers whose orders come by every mail.

Now it may be that one queen will not supply all the eggs needed, or that it is desired to rear more than one strain of queens. When this is so, more breeding queens may be used, and they may be kept in small hives. I have found that one good queen will supply enough eggs for 1500 young queens in one season.

Figure 1