BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
With the above minor exceptions, the nucleus system as above given is very good. For rearing queens on a snail scale, I consider the above method as good and as practical as can be desired. Such queens will be found large, long-lived and in every way will equal those reared under the swarming impulse. If you desire to practice and experiment in queen-rearing, do not be afraid to try it. It is a good way for the novice to start in on rearing queens.
Removing the queen from a full colony of bees is practically the same method as above given ; the difference is, however, that no more queen's cells are likely to be made than in a three-frame nucleus, and 1 hardly think one could get any better results by the full colony plan in the end. I very much prefer the nucleus system for rearing only a few queens, and it will be found much less trouble and much less expensive.
## 0.2 Rearing queens on a large scale
I think I have given as much advice as a novice will need on the subject of rearing a few queens, and will now describe how to rear queens by the thousands.
In this system a much smaller hive is used for nucleus colonies for keeping the queens until they have become fertile. The little hives, or boxes, used in my apiary have always worked as well with me as standard frames. The reader can do as he pleases about using them, but I advise testing the system and judging for ones sell as to its merits.
Bear in mind that I am not laying down any stereotyped system of queen-rearing. I shall give only that part of my long experience that will prove of value to the inexperienced bekeeper who desires to enter queen-rearing ; and I hope it will result in the production of much better queen bees than many that are now being reared and sold. I advise the reader to carry out any experiments that this work may suggest to his mind. If any of my readers can improve upon the methods herein given, I now advise them, by all means, to do so.
I shall hold back nothing, but give in this work a full description and explanation of every valuable point I have found in my forty years' experience in rearing queen bees for the beekeepers of the world. In connection with this business I have conducted hundreds of experiments that were found to be impractical and of no value.
I think many bee-keepers are in too much of a hurry to rush into print, when they are seized with an idea that they have made a valuable and important discovery in apiculture. When important discoveries are made it is time enough to make them public after a thorough test.
Well, I could go on and spread this story out over 200 pages of this size, but I think a more condensed form will be more comprehensive and better in every way, therefore I will get down to the point at once and drop the lecture part of the subject.
PROPER CONDITION OF THE APIARY WHEN QUENNARY REARING IS commenced
All who undertake to rear queeens should understand that before such work should begin the whole apiary should be put in the highest state of prosperity ; and the colonies to be used in queen-rearing made very strong in numbers. The combs of all cell-building colonies should be well filled with honey and pollen. It would be the nuerest folly to attempt to rear queues when the whole or even a part of the apiary is in a state of semi-starvation. So you see queen-rearing should not be commenced in the spring until the weather is quite warm and the bees have had a chance to breed up, fill all combs with brood and gather nectar from the early bloom. Give the bees time enough on the early bloom to get the swarming fever on.
Here in New England, in Massachusetts paticiuarily, the 8th of May is about as early as it is safe to commence to rear queeens. However, if the weather is fairly warm in April and the first week of May, colonies can be so fed and stimulated that they may think it is about time to get ready to swarm. By the way, I have heard of swarms issuing as early as the 1oth of May, and had one swarm on May 10, 1902.
Now here is a point at the start that should not be lost sight of. In breeding queen bees the same rules should be observed as in the breeding of animals. If desired to rear a colt, calf, chicken or any other animal, the parents selected are not taken from scrubs or inferior stock. The very best are selected. The same principle applies to bees.
Now for a queen mother take the best queen in the apiary, also for a drone mother equal care should be taken to obtain the best. Of course in the selection of the mother queen color and beauty are important factors to be considered, and so is prolificness, longevity, and honey-gathering qualities. It takes pretty good stock to combine all the above named points. As for gentiness I find almost any strain of bees docile enough to be handled with the use of a good bellows snucker. However, bees that have vigorous dispositions are usually good honey-gatherers, and no queen need be rejected as a breeder on account of the vicious disposition of her worker progeny. Only an occasional queen breeds vicious bees, and this trait is but seldom transmitted to offspring.
## 6. Proactive Boggs for Cell\({}_{l}\)-Building; Where to Keep The Breeding-Quen
I only a few queens are to be reared, the mother bee may be kept in a full colony ; and if a few dozen queens only are required, I advise placing a comb that the queens have used once or twice for brood in the centre of a large colony. In about five days this comb should contain several thousand eggs. Now some good queens can be reared on this comb by the plan given as the nucleus system ; but if you like to work with bees for amusement and experiment, try the plan I shall now give.
When a large number of queens are to be reared, it will be found a good plan to keep the breeding queen in a small hive having frames about five inches square, with five frames to a hive. I have used such an arrangement a great many years as above stated, and find it superior, in many ways to a full sized frame for getting eggs for cell-building. By this plan no combs are cut or untilated when a few eggs are wanted, whereas if full frames are used many good combs will necessarily be destroyed during the season. Then again, it is very much more trouble and work to open a large hive than a small one when necessary to have some eggs to use. Any person rearing queens feels the need of time saving devices, as there is always something to do when queen- rearing is going on ; I have found it so every day during the season.
One of the small combs will contain enough eggs for fifty queen-cells, and a good prolific queen will fill such a comb and put an egg in every cell during each twenty-four hours. Does not the reader see that by this arrangement there are always fresh eggs at hand, and the exact age of the eggs can be known to with-in almost an hour?
This one thing alone is a great point with me in my system of queen-rearing, as I can know, and so can any one who practices this method, just when to prepare bees for cell-building.
If a comb containing eggs is removed every day and a clean comb inserted in its place, cell-building can go on every day in the week ; and that is the right way to do if a supply of queens is to be kept up to meet the demands of customers whose orders come by every mail.
Now it may be that one queen will not supply all the eggs needed, or that it is desired to rear more than one strain of queens. When this is so, more breeding queens may be used, and they may be kept in small hives. I have found that one good queen will supply enough eggs for \( au_{500}\) young queens in one season.
How to start this queen-breeder colony
I will now describe the hive, fig. 1, for keeping the breeding queen in, and give the dimensions of all the parts so that any one
can make the entirething. Siles of hive, 6 in, high x 73% in, long x1% in, thick ; ends, 6x6 in., 7% in, thick. Make rabbit for frames to rest on 2%x1% in, in the 6x6x7% in, thick pieces. As the top bar of frame is but 1% in, thick, there will be a bee-space of 1% in.
between the cover of the live and the top of the frame, and plenty of room under the frames for the bees to cluster and be kept out of the way while the combs are being handled. The bottom of the live is gx83 in, x 7% in, thick and is nailed firmly to the bottom of the box. The top, or cover, is the same as the bottom only there are two 1x7% in, thick clamps nailed on to prevent the board from warping. 'Use 7-8 in, boards for the entire hive, excepting the sides, as these hives must necessarily be out in all sorts of weather, and rest upon the ground.
It will be found that the width of the live allows for more room than a regular bee-space for four frames, but this is quite an advantage when handling the frames, as just a bee-space does not allow sufficient room for easy handling the combs; and if they go in closely the queen and many of the bees may be crushed when the frames are removed.
The dimensions of the frames are as follows: Top bar 652x7-8 x4 in, ; bottom bar 512x7-8x4 in, ; end pieces 512x7-8x4 in, ; The top and bottom bars are nailed to the end pieces. \(\Lambda\) block is used to form them on when nailed, so that when the frames are put up they are all alike.
To stock this hive with bees, brood, stores and queen, remove from a full colony one comb containing brood in all stages of maturity with the queen and adhering bees. Place the hive on the grass, or a cloth, and brush the bees from the comb directly in front of it. They will at once run in, or, at any rate, stay about the hive until the combs are transferred to the small frames. To cut the combs in the small frames, lay the full comb on a clean board, place one of the little frames over it, and with a sharp knife cut the brood into the frame. If nicely done no strings or sticks will be needed to keep the brood in the frame. One of the combs should contain honey, pollen, etc.
The bees will soon repair the damage done the combs and brood, and, in the course of 24 hours, this colony will be in condition for the business of producing eggs for queen-rearing.
If any clean and nearly new pieces of comb about the size of the nucleus frame are at hand use them for the breeding-queen to deposit eggs in. Never place the empty comb at the side of the hive. The queen will utilize it at once if placed near the centre of the brood-nest.
In four days after inserting the comb it will be filled with eggs and larvae in just the right condition for cell-building and queen-rearing. From this time on a new comb can be given the
window screen and the size of the top of the brood-nest of the hive. I always have at hand some half dozen of these wire covers and they come into use many times when necessary to confine bees in the hive.
Now when ready to "seize" a colony of bees for the purpose of forcing them to rear queens against their natural will, proceed in this way : If a colony working in sections is selected, the super should be removed the previous day and all the bees allowed to return to the hive. When the sections are taken off place the screen on and just fasten it by one or two small nails. The next morning fasten the bees in by using a similar screen and suitable for confining the bees so that none can escape. Now the colony is ready to be taken to the bee-room and all the bees removed from the hive and combs. To the novice this may seem like a huge undertaking, yet it is not and does not require one half the time to perform as it does to describe it so that it can be understood.
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 a while. 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 4x4 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-clothbottom; the cover is a screen sane as above described. This arrangement gives the bees all needed air while confined. It is necessary to nail three pieces of wood 7-8 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.
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
Figure 3:
rear queens by them must use good judgment and a fair amount of common sense. That is what is needed in the queen-rearing business. Experiment and practice are as much needed in queen-rearing as in any other occupation one is at work at.
A piece of nice worker comb sxs inches square will furnish all the eggs a large colony of bees should be allowed to work into queen-cells. Such a piece of comb if carefully cut will make about ten strips containing a dozen or more eggs. Always give eggs in proportion to the quantity of bees that are to do the work of cell-building.
When the strips of comb are fastened to the sticks and in the frame, they should be placed in a brood-box and the balance of the space of the live filled by combs of honey and pollen. In no case use combs that have brood in them.
Now all being ready set the box of bees in a convenient place on the floor; put the box of combs between yourself and the bees.
With a sudden drop of the box on the floor all the bees will go to the bottom and before they can recover (from their surprise, remove the cover, place it on the box of combs and quickly place the combs over the box of bees. Now all the labor is done excepting giving the bees water until the next morning. All this work can be done without even one bee escaping in the entire operation.
The bees can be left in the bee-room over night, and placedon the stand about to o'clock the following day. Water may be supplied then while confined by splashing a little over the frames and on the bees, through the wire cover at the top.
When the bees are released they may be somewhat excited, not being wholly reconciled to loss of their queen. To pacify then place a caged queen at the entrance for a few hours when, they will quickly quiet down and the queen can be taken away and all will go on as though nothing had happened to the colony.
The bees are left 24 hours to build cell-cups, and then another thing must be done if first-class queens are to be reared. Now the colony to which the eggs are given will commence to build from 40 to 60 cell-cups, or would rear from 40 to 60 queens if none of the cell-cups were removed. But such a thing should never be permitted, as not one queen out of all those reared would be of any good. Should the colony commence to build 60 cell-cups, the proper thing to do would be to divide that number of cells equally among three strong colonies of bees. Well, you say, how can this be done? If at this time bees are gathering honey from the fields and in a high state of success, the cell-cups can be placed above a colony of bees as has been and is now practiced by many breeders of queen-bees. I want it understood, however, that I do not so advise anyone, as by the method to follow this very much better queens are reared. Yet if bees are in a swarming mood, pretty good queens are reared over the brood nest.
I shall advise all not to rear queens by above method excepting at swarming time, as under no other conditions can good queens be reared by such a system when any kind of a queen is in the live the bees occupy. Of course, if a colony is about to supersede its queen, fairly good queens are reared while a queen is in the colony.
Only a few of the queens reared under the supersedence process are first-class. Bees do not seem to work with that interest when superseding an old queen as they do when absolutely queenless, or are about to cast a swarm.
THE THEORY OF USING YOUNO BEES IN QUERN-RARING
I have given three methods of preparing bees for cell-building. The final result is the same in all cases. The only difference being in the manner of doing the work of preparingthe bees. Now, how many of my readers understand the correct theory of taking all the bees of a colony for such work rather than only a part of it? Let me describe. Old bees will not and cannot rear good queens; they will commence cell-cups and complete queen-cells, but no strong queens will come from them.
Why is this so? Simply because old bees have passed from the stage of nurses to the sphere of honey and pollen-gatherers, or out-door workers. Old bees cannot prepare the proper food for nursing either worker or queen-bee larvae.
What are considered old bees in this connection are those that have been made queenless and kept so from three days to a week; such bees are of no value as cell-builders, as after being queenless thirty-six hours they seem to lose their enthusiasm and interest in the work.
Now as to the correct theory of taking _all_ the bees of a colony for cell-building or for rearing queens. By such an operation every nurse bee in the live is taken, and this includes thousands of just hatched bees that are maturing each day as nurse bees, thus keeping up a constant supply of nurses.
How many of the readers of this work ever watched bees building queen-cells in an observatory hive? Why, a queen-cell, until it is capped is never without a worker bee's head in it.
The young bees keep a constant watch over the little worm within, and it is supposed that each bee that thrusts its head into the cell leaves a small amount of royal jelly. You all know that every cell from which a strong and healthy queen has emerged contains a lump of royal food as large as a pea. The amount is greatly in excess of the needs of the royal occupant.
It is the young bees that do all the labor in the hive and in rearing queens, and the more young bees there are engaged in the work the better will be the quality of the queens reared.
By this the reader will understand why all the bees of a colony should be used in building cell-cups and in completing queen-cells.
Has any one connected with the rearing of queen-bees ever before explained this point in any book or publication?
Notwithstanding the fact that young bees are constantly maturing as nurse bees, as above detailed, it is not good policy to compel any given lot of bees to commence cell-cup building, a second time. After once starting one batch of cell-cups the interest and enthusiasm has vanished, and pretty poor work will be done.
Hens, ducks and birds of all kinds will sit on their eggs for a time, but there is a limit to the "broody" condition in all such cases. Hens have been known to sit six weeks, or rather have been compelled to sit long enough to "hatch out" a second brood of chickens. But in many such cases the nest is deserted before the second lot of eggs nature. It's but little use to overwork Nature. Natural laws must be observed in all such cases. This I have tried to apply to all my operations in queen-rearing.
PREPARING BESS FOR CELI-BUILDING
method number two
My favorite way of preparing bees for cell-building is given in Method No. 1. No doubt many will say they cannot do any thing of the kind; 'tis too fussy and takes too much time, etc. It is not fussy nor in any way difficult to perform. However, I will give two other methods for preparing bees for cell-building, making a colony queenless, etc.
We must start in the same as in case No. 1, that is, the sections must be removed the day previous.
Now proceed in the usual way of "drumning out" a swarm. The proper way to do this, and the way I practiced artificial swarming, or dividing a colony of bees, is as follows: Blow rottenwood smoke among the bees through the entrance; this so alarms the colony that all the bees commence to fill their sacs with honey. By drumming on sides of the live, while smoking is being done, greatly helps in the operation.
When the bees seem ready to go up into the cap, more smoke should be introduced and a vigorous drumming on the live kept up. In this way about two-thirds of the colony will run up into the cap. Now give then a few minutes to sort of settle down and become quiet. Remove the cap, invert it and throw a cloth over the box. Give the bees a few puffs of tobacco smoke under the cloth. In a few minutes the cloth can be removed, the queen hunted out and the bees dumped into a box same as described in Method No. 1.
By this plan bees, in either box or frame lives, can be utilized for queen-rearing. The queen can be re-introduced at once.
In a few hours, bees thus prepared, will be ready to build queen-cells and all that is necessary to do is to proceed as in case of No. 1.
## Improved Queen-Rearing
method number three
Early in the morning reinove the queen from a populous colony. At night they will be in a proper condition for cell-building. When ready, prepare the eggs and queen-rearing hive as given above. Remove the queenless colony to a new stand, twenty feet away, and put the queen-rearing hive in its place. Now after arranging to brush the bees down in front of the latter hive, take out the combs of the queenless colony and brush or shake, at least one-half of the bees in front of the queen-rearing hive. They will all run in and at once commence to construct queen-cells, and the next day will be seen working just the same as if nothing had happened to them. The queen removed in the morning may be given back to the old colony.
This operation so depopulates the colony that little will be done in the supers for a week or ten days. But as the combs are filled with brood in all stages, and as the queen is with them, the stock will soon recover and get back in fine condition.