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 ApiaryAlley, Henry
Science
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
Alley, Henry
Bee culture; Bees
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.
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: 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.
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