CHAPTER IX.
QUEEN REARING.
Suppose the queen is laying two thousand eggs a day, and that the full number of bees is forty thousand, or even more—though the bees are liable to so many accidents, and as the queen does not always lay to her full capacity, it is quite probable that this is about an average number—it will be seen that each day that a colony is without a queen there is a loss equal to about one-twentieth of the working force of the colony, and this is a compound loss, as the aggregate loss of any day is its special loss, augmented by the several losses of the previous days. Now, as queens are liable to die, to become impotent, and as the act of increasing colonies demands the absence of queens, unless the apiarist has extra ones at his command, it is imperative, would we secure the best results, to ever have at hand extra queens. So the young apiarist must early learn
HOW TO REAR QUEENS.
As queens may be needed by the last of May, preparations looking to the early rearing of queens must commence early. When preparing the colonies for winter the previous autumn, be sure to place some drone-comb somewhere near the centre of the colony that has given the best results the previous season. In March, and certainly by the first of April, see that all colonies have plenty of bee-bread. If necessary, place unbolted flour, that of rye or oats is best, in shallow troughs near the hives. It may be well to give the whole apiary the benefit of such feeding before the flowers yield pollen. Yet, I have found that here in Central Michigan, bees can usually gather pollen by the first week of April, which I think is as early as they should be allowed to fly, and, in fact, as early as they will fly with sufficient regularity to make it pay to feed the meal. I much question, after some years of experiment, if it ever pays to give the bees a substitute for pollen.
The colony under consideration, should be given frames containing bee-bread which was stored the previous year. At the same time, March or April, commence stimulative feeding. If you have another colony equally good with the first, also give that the pollen, and commence giving it honey or syrup, but only worker-comb should be in the brood-chamber. This will prevent the close in-breeding which would of necessity occur if both queens and drones were reared in the same colony; and which, though regarded as deleterious in the breeding of all animals, should be practiced in case one single queen is of decided superiority to all others of the apiary.
Very likely in April, drone-eggs will be laid in drone-comb. I have had drones flying on the first of May. As soon as the drones commence to hatch out, remove the queen and all eggs and uncapped brood from some good, strong colony, and replace it with eggs or brood just hatched from the colony that is being fed, or if two equally good colonies have been stimulated, from the one in which no drone-comb was placed. The queen which has been removed may be used in making a new colony, in manner soon to be described under "dividing or increasing the number of colonies." This queenless colony will immediately commence forming queen-cells ([Fig, 56]). Sometimes these are formed to the number of fifteen or twenty, and they are started, too, in a full, vigorous colony, in fact, under the most favorable conditions. Cutting off edges of the comb, or cutting holes in the same where there are eggs or larvæ; just hatched, will almost always insure the starting of queen-cells in such places. It will be noticed, too, that our queens are started from eggs or from larvæ but just hatched, as we have given the bees no other, and so are fed the royal pabulum from the first. Thus, we have met every possible requisite to secure the most superior queens. By removal of the queen we also secure a large number of cells, while if we waited for the bees to start the cells preparatory to natural swarming, in which case we secure the two desirable conditions named above, we shall probably fail to secure so many cells, and may have to wait longer than we can afford.
Even the apiarist who keeps black bees and desires no others, or who has only pure Italians, will still find that it pays to practice this selection, for, as with the poultry fancier, or the breeder of our larger domestic animals, so, too, the apiarist is ever observing some individuals of marked superiority, and he who carefully selects such queens to breed from, will be the one whose profits will make him rejoice, and whose apiary will be worthy of all commendation. As will be patent to all, by the above process we exercise a care in breeding which is not surpassed by the best breeders of horses and cattle, and which no wise apiarist will ever neglect.
After we have removed all the queen-cells, in manner soon to be described, we can again supply eggs, or newly-hatched larvæ—always from those queens which close observation has shown to be the most vigorous and prolific in the apiary—and thus keep the same queenless colony or colonies, engaged in starting queen-cells till we have all we desire. Yet we must not fail to keep this colony strong by the addition of capped brood, which we may take from any hive as most convenient. I have good reason to believe that queen-cells should not be started after the first of September, as I have observed that late queens are not only less prolific, but shorter lived. In nature, late queens are rarely produced, and if it is true that they are inferior, it might be explained in the fact, that the ovaries remain so long inactive. As queens that are long unmated are utterly worthless, so, too, mated queens long inactive are enfeebled.
In a week the cells are capped, and the apiarist is ready to form his