The Italian Alp-bee; or, The gold mine of husbandry: short and practical instructions to breed genuine prolific Italian queens; to multiply them by hundreds in a few months and how to change German hives into ItalianHermann, H. C. (Heinrich C.)
Science
The Italian Alp-bee; or, The gold mine of husbandry: short and practical instructions to breed genuine prolific Italian queens; to multiply them by hundreds in a few months and how to change German hives into Italian
Hermann, H. C. (Heinrich C.)
Bee culture; Bees
Such queen-cells are placed singly into very small boxes, if only of
the size of two walnuts, and these boxes are put in any hive on a spot
where a proper degree of warmth is developed, say, just above the
little rods which is regarded by many bee-cultivators as the honey-room
in the moveable box. There they can remain until wanted. That a small
wire-grating is placed before the little box is understood, so that if
a queen should creep out unexpectedly before required, the bees can
feed her.
If the queen-cells should have sustained any little injury it must be
patched again directly with a little wax. The best way is to warm a
knife a little and to touch the cell slightly with it, the wax-cover
is then sufficiently softened to repair the damage. Larger injuries
cannot be remedied, and one cannot be too careful in cutting them out
not to damage any of them.
§ 12.
QUEEN-BREEDING WITH BROOD-COMES.
A brood-comb may be taken from the mother-hive,[5] but always _with the
bees adhering thereto_, and can be put in a breeding-box provided with
honey and empty combs. This is placed in the room of a populous hive,
to people it, and after the lapse of ten days the queen-cells are full
and covered; they are cut out as stated before.[6]
[Footnote 5: This is particular to be advised when there is only one
Italian queen which must be preserved to breed drones.]
[Footnote 6: Sometimes the bees put their queen-cells together so
close, and in groups, or opposite to each other, that often it is not
possible to cut the cells for use without damaging them. These must
be left, and watch must be kept for the eleven days, and, as soon a
as young queen creeps out, she must be taken away, all, but the last
yellow one which is left in the hive. If a piece of about an inch
square is cut off, crossways, from below the edge of a young brood-comb
full of grub-eggs, so that the liquid of the brood runs out, it
generally causes the bees to fix their queen-cells on that spot in the
best order.]
§ 13.
ADDING OF QUEENS.
The adding of the queen to hives of other races is done like the adding
of queen-cells. First, the hive is deprived of the queen, then the
queen is put into the box with a little honey and two handfulls of her
own bees, and the box is then placed in the desired hive. After four
days it must be seen whether the black bees have commenced queen-cells.
If they have not the little fly-hole is opened when the bees will unite
and accept the queen. But if queen-cells are formed, it is a proof that
the bees are not yet inclined to accept the new queen. All queen-cells
must now be cut out, and wait a few days to make them feel quite
forsaken, then the Italian may be let in and will then be friendly
received.
If queens or queen-cells were introduced without regard, they would all
be bitten off, as the Italian and black bees are two different races
who hate each other.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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