Good queens is the main point in queen-rearing. Never mind about the cost. If the right methods are used in rearing queens, good queens will cost no more than poor ones.
Bee-keepers the world over are interested in the subject of better queens. We all know that queens to supply the demand must be reared by what is called artificial methods. The best methods must be put in practice if the bee-keeping public is to be satisfied. Cheap and inferior queens have had their day, and those who rear the best will get the business and they should have it, too.
FEEDING WHILE QUEEN-REARING IS GOING ON
It should be understood that when queen-rearing is going on and no forage in the fields, feeding must be resorted to; a syrup composed of honey and granulated sugar will answer all right for food. Feeding not only keeps up the excitement, but the interest in the work the bees are doing. Keep up a liberal supply until the cells are capped.
During the past season I conducted some experiments in feeding clear honey and clear sugar syrup while cell-building was going on. The results of my experiments clearly show that sugar syrup with some honey is just as good to feed bees in queen-rearing as the best honey. This fact I could not believe until I had made the above experiment; therefore it will be seen that food has no influence whatever on the quality of the queens reared. Other conditions and circumstances do have a positive influence on the embryo queens; large colonies, thousands of young bees, plenty of stores of both honey and pollen, and then when the colony is put in fine condition for queen-rearing, the result is fine queens. Observe all these conditions if success is desired.
THE QUEEN NURSERY AND HOW TO USE IT
One would naturally think that when a lot of ripe queen-cells are at hand the thing to do would be to form nuclei for the reception of the cells or young queens. It is not so in my case. I never allow queens to hatch in nuclei. My reasons for this are many. I like to secure a large number of queens, say 50 or 100, and critically examine each one to see that they are all right before making up nucleus colonies.
All of my queens are hatched in nurseries and in such cages as illustrated in fig. [6]. The size of these cages is such that 35 of them just fill one standard Langstroth frame having a thin top bar. These cages are sawed and fitted so nicely that they will stay in the frame without fastenings of any kind.
It will be seen that there are two holes in the edge of the cage. One is for a queen-cell, the other for a small piece of sponge which is filled with honey slightly diluted with water. The water prevents the sponge drying too quickly and the honey furnishes food for the young queens some two weeks. When the cages are ready, and the cells in them, a frame is filled and then is placed in the center of a large colony of bees, and between two full combs of brood. This sort of hive-incubator works splendidly and in the course of 48 hours all the young queens will be hatched out, when the nursery should be removed and placed in a queenless colony or in a colony nursing unhatched queens.
Before any young queens are introduced they should be closely examined, and if any are found not up to the standard, or in any way inferior, they should be destroyed. If any cells containing inferior queens are given nucleus, or inferior queens introduced, and not looked after until they have been in the hive long enough to become fertile, it will be found that much valuable time has been lost. I cannot afford to take such chances, therefore I want to see and examine all queens before giving them to colonies.