BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
Whether one uses the Alley plan or some of its modifications, or the Doolittle cell cup method, certain stages of the process of getting the cells built may be the same. A supply of royal jelly will be necessary to begin with only where grafting, or changing the larvae from worker cells into prepared cells, is practiced. The preparation of colonies for building cells, finishing them and caring for them until ready for emergence of the young queens, is very similar by any of these methods.
There are numerous variations of the treatment of colonies in preparation for cell building, and several of these will be described in an effort to treat the whole subject in a comprehensive manner.
### Getting Jelly to Start With.
If the beekeeper wishes to start cells early in the season before there has been any preparation for swarming, it is sometimes difficult to secure a supply of royal jelly readily; especially is this true when the colonies are still weak from wintering. The first thing to do is to look carefully for supersedure cells, when making the spring examination of the apiary. Failing queens may be replaced at any season, and one or two cells will be built in anticipation of the supercedure. If a cell is found, this difficulty is at once disposed of, providing it is at the proper stage. The royal jelly is found in the bottom of the queen cells and is a thick white paste, very similar in appearance to the paste ordinarily used for library purposes or mounting photographs. Sometimes, when it is quite thick, it is desirable to thin it slightly by the addition of a small quantity of saliva or a drop of warm water. Only a minute amount ofjelly is placed in each of the prepared cups, so that a well supplied queen cell will provide a sufficient quantity to supply thirty to fifty of them.
If no cells containing jelly are found, the usual plan is to remove the queen from a vigorous colony and permit them to start cells. The author very much dislikes to remove queens except when absolutely necessary, and prefers some other plan. A simple way is to place a wire cloth over the top of a strong colony in place of the cover. On this set a hive body containing at least three frames of brood in the various stages, being sure that there is no queen on the frames, and that there is plenty of newly hatched larvae. All adhering bees should be left on the combs. The cover is then placed over all and the hive left closed for two days, when there will be an abundant supply of royal jelly available.
**The Author's Plan.**
The author, not being engaged in queen rearing commercially, can choose a favorable time for rearing such queens as are necessary to make increase or for requesting. While the method seldom fails even under unfavorable conditions with him, it is very possible that it might not be satisfactory under some conditions.
To begin with, the queen is found and placed, on the comb on which she is, in an empty hivebody. Sometimes the remainder of the space is filled with empty drawn combs, sometimes one or more frames of brood are added, as circumstances dictate. The hivebody containing the queen is then placed on the hivestand in the position where the colony had already been placed. Above the hivebody containing the queen is placed a queen excluder, to prevent the queen from going above. If the weather is warm so that there is no longer any danger of chilling brood from dividing the cluster into two parts, an empty set of extracting combs is placed over the excluder. The original hive containing most of the brood is now placed on top of this empty chamber. Twenty-four hours later the bees are given a frame of cellcups containing larvae. These cups are placed in the hive in the same manner as usual, except that they have no royal jelly. A thin syrup made with sugar and water or honey thinned with water is then poured freely over the tops of these frames. The worler bees gorge themselves freely with the syrup and, since the brood in the upper chamber is so far from the queen below, the bees are easily stimulated to start queen cells. Usually from one to three of these dry cells will be accepted, and two days later will furnish an abundant supply of royal jelly for grafting purposes. A second lot of cells is now prepared with jelly, and these are given to the bees in the upper story in the same manner. Syrup is poured over the frames as freely as before, with the result that a large portion of the cells are likely to be accepted. The author does not claim that the idea is altogether original with him, but simply outlines it as his method of practice. Feeding the bees freely at the time of giving a batch of cells is rather common practice among the queen breeders in certain localities. By this method, it is easily possible to secure a supply of royal jelly without dequeening a colony or interfering with the laying of the queen. If it is too cold to place an empty super between the brood nest and the brood in the upper story, the plan will usually work with only the excluder between. After the weather becomes warm enough, it is easily possible to continue building cells indefinitely above the same colony, by lifting the brood above as fast as sealed in the brood nest. The young bees emerging in the upper chamber continue to supply nurses as needed. It will be readily apparent that to be successful this plan requires a strong colony.
### Transferring the Larvae.
Some beekeepers make a practice of placing a frame of cellcups in the hive over night in advance of the grafting. The idea is that the bees will work them over, smooth and polish them, thus placing them in more attractive condition for the acceptance of the prepared cells. The author has never been able to convince himself that this plan brings enough better results, in practice, to justify the extra trouble, where large numbers of queens are to be reared.
The cellcups are placed in the wood bases and fastened in place as shown in Figure 25. Commercial queen breeders usually have two or three bars of cells in each frame instead of only one. About fifteen cellcups to each bar is not unusual, so that with a liberal number accepted it is often possible to get from thirty to forty finished cells in each batch. Figure 26.
At this stage the grafting house described on page 31 is very desirable. The queen cells from which the royal jelly is to be taken, together with the prepared cellcups and a frame of newly hatching brood from the breeding colony are now taken to the grafting house or into a warm room for the final preparation. For transferring the jelly and the larvae, there are specially prepared tools in the market. These look very much like knitting needles with one end flattened and slightly bent to one side. However, one can do very well with a quill cut down to a strip about a sixteenth of an inch in width, with the end bent in similar manner. Even a toothpick can be made to serve quite well.
An ingenious device for transferring larvae is described by John Grubb of Woodmont, Pa. He uses a small stick of wood about three-sixteenths of an inch thick and four inches long, one end of which is whittled down to a long tapering point. A long horschair is doubled, then twisted together, and doubled again. Both ends are laid on the stick, the circular center extending beyond the end. Fine thread is wrapped around the hair and the stick, to hold all firmly. The doubled hair makes a circle about a tenth of an inch in diameter beyond the pointed end of the stick. With this horsehair spoon it is an easy matter to lift a larva from a cell and transfer it to a cellcup. It is easily and quickly made and materials necessary are usually within easy reach.
First a bit of royal jelly is placed in each cellcup, and then a larva about twenty-four to thirty-six hours old is carefully lifted from its cell and placed on the jelly. There is some Figure 26: A batch of cells by the cell-cup method.
difference of opinion as to the proper age of larvae, but all agree that larvae more than three days old should never be used. Nobody holds that better queens can be reared from larvae two days old than from younger larvae, although some think that as good results can be obtained. The majority seem to favor larvae from twelve to twenty-four hours old, with some
Figure 27: Larvae not to exceed thirty-six hours old should be used for grafting.
strong advocates of thirty-six hours as the proper age. Figure 27. However, it may safely be said that twenty-four to thirty-six hours is as old as larvae should be for this purpose. Probably up to this age as good or better results will be obtained as from the use of younger ones.
Something has already been said about the importance of selecting the breeding stock carefully. This is a vital matter if good results are to come from the breeder's work. The larvae used in grafting should be the product of the best queen available.
At Figure 27 we show the magnified larvae in the cells at about the proper age for grafting. Sladen recommends that larvae not quite as large as a lettuce seed be used. With a little experience one will soon come to tell readily the approximate age of the larvae by the appearance.
## Chapter 5 Getting Cells Started
For building cells one must have strong colonies, Figure 28, and to insure this condition, one must have his bees in good shape in early spring. While it is often advocated that stimulative feeding be resorted to early, in order to build the colonies up to a sufficient strength, the author inclines to the belief that colonies in two stories will build up just as rapidly if there is an abundance of sealed honey in the hive, as is possible with stimulative feeding. Sometimes it seems that uncapping a portion of the honey has a stimulating effect, but feeding in small quantities, for the purpose of stimulating the bees to greater activity, rarely seems necessary until the time comes to give them the cells. At this time feeding is often needed in order to get large batches accepted and finished. When honey is coming in from natural sources, feeding is, of course, unnecessary.
The real problem is to get the bees into the right temper to accept the cells readily, and finish a large portion of them properly. This point has been touched upon rather indirectly,
Figure 28. Only strong colonies should be used for building or finishing cells.
already, under the discussion of the various methods. A strong colony which is preparing to supersede the queen is very desirable at this time. Such a colony will accept cells readily and will supply them with royal jelly abundantly. No better cells can be had than those built in a supersedure colony. It will pay to look through the apiary very carefully in search of such a colony, rather than to resort to artificial conditions. A colony which is preparing to swarm, will do very well, also, only they must be watched carefully, to make sure that a swarm does not issue as soon as the cells are sealed. When a colony is found to have queen cells already built which contain eggs or larvae, these cells may be destroyed and a frame of prepared cells given. Little attention need be paid to the presence of the queen, for she will not disturb the new cells under such conditions.
If no colony is to be had which is already in the cell-building notion, it then becomes necessary to stimulate the cell-building instinct artificially. There are several methods of doing this.
**Removing Queen and Brood.**
Probably the most generally practiced method is to take a strong colony, and remove the queen and all unsealed brood. Empty combs and those which contain only honey and pollen are left in the hive. The queen should be placed in a nucleus, or given to another colony where needed. All bees should be carefully brushed from the combs containing the brood in order to leave as large a force of nurse bees as possible. The brood is then given to another colony to be cared for.
About ten or twelve hours later the bees will be in the mood to build queen cells. Being without brood, the nurse bees will be abundantly supplied with food for the larvae, and will accept a batch of prepared cells very eagerly.
When giving the cells, it is well to follow the practice of some of the most extensive breeders and feed liberally at the moment, to insure a larger portion of cells accepted. For this purpose an ordinary garden sprinkler serves very well. Thinsugar syrup is sprinkled freely over the tops of the frames as described previously. The bees gorge themselves in cleaning up the syrup and anxiously seek larvae to be fed. This method of feeding is desirable at the time of giving cells by any method.
Some breeders leave the prepared cells in the colony to which they are first given until they are sealed. However, a larger number of first class cells will usually be secured by working two colonies together, one as a cell-building colony and the second as a cell-finishing colony. The cell-finishing colony should be equally strong with the cell-starting colony, but not all the brood is taken from it. At the time that the brood is taken from the first colony, part of the brood is removed from another, and the remainder raised above an excluder, leaving the queen in the brood nest below on one frame of brood, and with empty combs in which to continue laying. This we will call the finishing colony.
Twenty-four hours after the prepared cells have been given to the queenless and broodless bees in the cell-starting hive, we will probably find most of the cells partly built, and the larvae abundantly supplied with royal jelly. If we leave them as they are, some of these cells are likely to be neglected, so that not all will come to maturity. We may now safely remove these cells and after carefully brushing off the nurse bees with a feather, give them to the cell-finishing colony, placing the frames above the excluder. By this time the bees in the second colony will have been forty-eight hours separated from the queen which still remains below the excluder. Since no eggs have been laid with the brood above for this period, the bees are in much the same condition as a colony with a failing queen and accordingly accept the cells as readily, as a rule, as a supersedure colony will do.
When the batch of started cells is taken from the starting colony, it is given a second lot of newly prepared cells. This may be repeated regularly for some time. However, the same bees cannot serve as nurses for very long and it will be necessary to supply the starting colony with frames of sealed brood ready to emerge at frequent intervals if the same colony is used as a cell-starting colony for more than ten days. Usually the number of cells accepted in each batch will soon begin to diminish, so that it will be desirable to prepare another colony for this purpose after eight or ten days.
There is a great difference in individual colonies as to the number of cells built, and it sometimes becomes necessary to experiment a bit to find the best colonies for this purpose. Some colonies will build double the number of cells that others will build. An extensive breeder will find it necessary to have several cell-building colonies at one time. Figure 29 shows a strong cell-finishing colony at the Davis apiary in Tennessee.
**The Swarm Box.**
Alley used much the same plan as above described, except that he first found the queen and then shook all the bees into a swarm box which is made by placing a wirecloth bottom and cover on an ordinary box of suitable size. The bees were smoked before shaking them into the box to induce them to gorge themselves with honey, and then they were confined in the box from morning until evening. The wirecloth admits plenty of air and by the time the bees are placed in a hive for cell building, they will recognize their hopelessly queenless condition, and be ready to accept the prepared cells with little delay. Alley gave eggs in strips of natural comb, instead of the prepared cells, it will be remembered, but the principle is the same. He left the bees queenless in the swarm box for at least ten hours. He also fed the bees syrup while confined in the box.
### **Rearing Queens in Queenright Colonies.**
The author prefers to rear queens in a queenright colony, since it is not so difficult to maintain normal conditions over a long period of time, and the bees are not so sensitive to fluctuations in weather conditions or honeyflow. It is not always possible to make a success with the first batch of cells given by this plan, but once accepted the same colony can be kept busy rearing cells for weeks, or even all summer if desired.
One plan which is followed by successful breeders is to select a strong colony for cell building. Remove the cover, and put a queen excluder in its place. Then take enough frames of brood from several different colonies to fill a second brood-chamber above the excluder, leaving one vacant space. Care must be used to make sure that no queen is on the frames placed in the second story. The vacant space is left as near the center of the colony as possible, and a few hours later a frame of prepared cells is placed there, feeding the bees with syrup from the sprinkling can at the time the cells are given. If this first batch of cells is not readily accepted try again the following day. After four days a second batch can be given, and a new batch every four days thereafter. By this plan the cells are left with the colony until ready to be given to the nuclei. It only becomes necessary to add two or three frames of sealed brood every week to provide the colony with plenty of young bees for nurses, to continue cell building indefinitely. About ten to fifteen sealed cells can be secured from a single colony every four days by this plan. If a heavy honeyflow comes on, it may become necessary to add supers between the brood nest below and the cell-building chamber above, since the old queen continues to lay in normal manner below the excluder. By this method the cell-building colony will give a crop of honey as well as queens. The addition of so much brood from other colonies will keep the cell-building colony very strong throughout the season. Of course, frames of honey must be removed from time to time as frames of brood are given, and, during a good flow, it may become necessary to remove frames of honey quite often to prevent crowding in the cell-building chamber.
**Feeding.**
During a dearth of nectar it often becomes necessary to resort to stimulative feeding to induce the bees to continue cell building by any of these methods. Of course, a queenless colony will build some cells under almost any conditions, but to get good cells in sufficient numbers, a fresh supply of food must continue coming to the hive daily. If there is none in the field a pint or more of thin syrup should be fed daily, preferably at night, to prevent robbing.
## Chapter 11 Care of Finished Cells.
About four days after the prepared cell cups are given to the bees, the finished cells will be sealed, Figure 11. If the weather is warm they may be placed in cages and transferred to other colonies for safe keeping, until time for the young queens to emerge. However, in cool weather, there is danger that the young queens will be chilled and injured, if the cells are placed in cages so that the nurses can no longer warm them by direct contact. Most breeders leave the cells to the care of the bees until the evening of the ninth day. The cells are then caged or given directly to the nuclei, where they are to bemated. In general, it is better to place the cell at once in the nucleus.
Great care must always be used in handling sealed queen cells. Any slight jar is likely to dislodge the nymph from its bed of royal jelly and injure it seriously. The bees which may cluster about the cells may be driven off by smoking them or by carefully brushing them away. The longer the cells are left undisturbed, the less the danger of injury to the young queens. The bees should never be shaken from a frame containing queen cells.
It is necessary to separate cells built by the Alley plan by cutting with a sharp knife. The knife should be kept warm to get best results. Otherwise, instead of cutting freely it may simply crush the wax and injure a cell. Figure 21 shows how the cells may be cut apart.
It is important, also, to keep the cells right side up at all times. Some breeders use a cell block such as may be seen at Figure 22. This enables the breeder to carry a whole batch to the apiary to be placed, one at a time, in the nuclei, without danger of injuring them.
It often happens that a batch of cells will be ripe and the nuclei not yet ready to receive them for one reason or another. In that case, candy should be placed in the nursery cages, and the cells placed in them on the ninth or tenth day after the cells are given to the bees. It should be remembered that the queens will emerge on the fifteenth or sixteenth day after the eggs were laid. Should a virgin queen emerge before the cells are removed and cared for, she is likely to destroy at once all that remain. Thus all the beekeeper's labor is for naught.
It is necessary to exercise some care in extremely hot weather to avoid overheating the cells when carrying them about in the hot sun. Well known queen breeders admit having lost valuable cells on more than one occasion by overheating through exposure to direct sunshine on a hot day.
In placing the cells in the nuclei the cell should be gently pushed into the side of a comb just above the brood, if there is brood. However, it often happens that no brood is present in a nucleus when a cell is placed. In that event it should be set into the comb near the center of the hive.
Figure 31: Placing cell in nucleus without brood.
Figure 32: Cell protectors.
end. Taking advantage of this fact a wire protector has been made which remains open at the end, thus permitting the queen to emerge without further attention, Figure 32. By the time the queen is ready to emerge, the bees will discover the absence of the old queen and the newcomer will be welcomed.
**Formation of Nuclei.**
In the chapter on equipment for queen rearing, the various styles of mating boxes and hives have been described. If the standard hive is used, the formation of nuclei is a simple matter. As many colonies as may be needed to make the desired number of nuclei are broken up, and the combs together with adhering bees are placed in the nuclei. One frame with the old queen is left in the old hive, and it is usually well to leave a second frame of brood with her, to enable her to build
Figure 33: A queen-mating yard composed of standard hives, each divided into two parts.
up the colony again more rapidly. The rest of the space is filled with empty combs. One frame of brood and bees, together with one empty comb or one containing honey, is placed in each nucleus, Figure 33. The entrance is then stopped with grass to prevent the escape of the bees for several hours. By the time they have gnawed their way out they will become accustomed to the new condition, and most of them will remain in the new position. Unless the frame given is well supplied with brood, it is desirable to give two frames to each nucleus.
A day or two later sealed queen cells may be given safely. As the season advances, the demand for queens increases, and the breeder will find it necessary to increase the number of mating nuclei. As each queen is allowed to lay for a short time in the nucleus before caged for shipment, many of the nuclei will build up rapidly. From time to time one will be found which can spare a frame of brood and bees as already described. At the close of the season these nuclei are united to make them strong enough to winter as full colonies.
### Stocking Mating Boxes or Baby Nuclei.