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.
§ VIII. INTRODUCING NEW QUEENS.
This is an operation that is continually being practised for the purpose of Italianising a colony, though there are other occasions for its adoption, as on the loss or the superannuation of the old queen. We will in the first place describe the mode of procedure with a frame hive.
Should the old queen be remaining in the hive, she has first to be removed. Having discovered her, by lifting out and examining the frames (see [page 271]), place a wineglass over her whilst on the comb, and, with a card passed very carefully underneath, she may, with a few of her subjects, be made a prisoner and easily removed. She should be preserved in a small box till the success of the new introduction is ascertained. Then, having enclosed the new queen, with such of her retinue if any as are with her, in the domed wire cage described at [page 199], place this cage upon the comb in a spot where there is a little honey, so that she may be independent of the bees for food, and as near the brood as may be; press it into the comb as far as the middle, and close the hive and leave the bees undisturbed for three days—less will mostly suffice, but it is best to be on the safe side. The royal cells that are sure to have been commenced should now be cut away with a penknife, and then the new queen may be carefully released. If the hive is one that permits it, her reception should be watched. If the bees make way for her and caress her with their antennæ, all will be well, and the comb may be gently restored to its position and the hive shut up. But if they cluster in a ball around her, her death is intended; and if they cannot readily be induced to separate they should be taken out and dropped into lukewarm water (which will hurt none of them), and the queen re-encaged for another day or so—that is, if she has not already met her doom, which is all uncertain: Mr. Langstroth says he has had several queens stung to death before they had quitted his fingers! We prefer effecting her release, then shutting up the hive and leaving the bees quietly to themselves.