I so arrange my workshop that all the above work is easily and quickly done. When the hive is taken to the bee-room it is placed on the cap of a hive and then I just sit down and at once commence operations. The first thing is to give the bees tobacco smoke at the entrance as well as some at the top through the screen, all the while drum on the hive, or excite the bees by striking the hands on the sides of the hive. This causes the bees to fill with honey and in the course of ten minutes they are ready and in condition to be brushed from the combs into a box where they will remain quiet until all are removed from the combs and hive. The screen is first removed from the top, the bees shaken from it, then the combs are taken out, one at a time, and all the bees brushed from them into a hive-cap. While doing this work some of the bees may attempt to fly, or crawl up the sides of the cap, if they do, more smoke is blown among them, when they soon quiet down and remain so for quite awhile. When all the bees have been removed, the queen should be hunted up. If the work of finding the queen is rightly done, it will not require but a few minutes to find her. Of course the bees must be pushed over considerably in the operation. The best tool for such a purpose is the wide part of a 4 × 4 section. Never use feathers or a small broom for such work.
When the queen is found, the bees are forced into one end of the cap by a sudden strike of the box on the floor, and then they are quickly dumped into another box the exact size of the hive the bees were taken from. This latter box has a wire-cloth bottom; the cover is a screen same as above described. This arrangement gives the bees all needed air while confined. It is necessary to nail three pieces of wood ⅞ inches square across the bottom of the box so that the air will not be shut out when the box is resting on anything. The bees are then put in a cool place until the time arrives for giving them eggs for cell-building.
The bees disposed of, we now have all the brood of a strong colony to take care of. Now for the first two or three colonies treated as above, I divide the brood among the weaker colonies in the apiary. By this operation, the light colonies soon become strong and in condition for the first flow of honey. At this stage of the work, we have a colony of queenless bees; the brood disposed of, and everything is in readiness for starting the bees to building cell-cups in a natural and practical way. We will now suppose the bees have been queenless six hours. The next move is to get the frame, or piece of comb containing the eggs, cut in strips and fasten in position so the bees will at once commence work on cell-cups.
This work cannot be done in a cold room. Have in the workshop a three-wick oil stove, not only for heating purposes but to use in other necessary work in queen-rearing operation. Another thing that must be at hand is a tin vessel in which there are equal parts of rosin and bees-wax. Melt these on the oil stove, mix thoroughly and when quite hot it will be ready for use.
Figure 3
We will now suppose the comb containing eggs for queen-cells has been taken from the hive and is at hand ready to be prepared. This is cut in strips by using a thin, hot knife by the lines as shown in fig. [3]. Now the egg in each alternate cell of the strips should be removed in order that sufficient room may be given for large queen-cells. I know of no better way of doing this than by taking a common “scratch” match between the thumb and fore finger, inserting the “scratch” end in the cell and rapidly twirling it for a moment. This effectively destroys the egg as shown in fig. [4].
Figure 4
Now the next thing to do is to fasten the comb on strips of wood and in such a position that the bees will construct a large number of queen-cells. Fig. [5] illustrates three rows of completed queen-cells and the manner of fastening the strips of comb to the wood. This is done by lightly dipping the strips of comb in the wax mixture. Just touch the edges of the cells of the opposite side of those in which the eggs were destroyed and quickly place the comb on the wood.