MillerThousand AnswersBeekeepingQuestions.pdf - BioBees

THOUSAND ANSWERS 169with a select tested queen, a select untested queen has nothing buther looks to entitle her to a higher price, for nothing can yet betold about the looks of her unborn progeny, to say nothing aboutthe performance of the name.A breeder is one that is considerably better than the average,and so, of unusual value to breed from.You will see that there is chance for a good deal of loosenessin the whole business, especially as good looks and good behaviordo not always go together. "Handsome is that handsome does.''Q. Is there any way to tell how good the queen- is in a weakcolony, during brood-rearing?A. No. She may lay enough eggs to keep a weak colony supplied,but not enough for a strong colony. Yet even in a weakcolony a very poor queen may not keep the cells filled with eggsin an orderly manner, but will skip more or less cells. Even ina strong colony you cannot tell how good a queen is merely bylooking at her brood: The most prolific queen is not by anymeans always the best. To learn how good a queen is you mustwait J:o see how much honey her bees will store compared withothers.Q. I put a full depth super on top of one of my colonies, andan examination afterwards showed the queen was rearing broodvery extensively in the upper story, and later on I examined thelower story and found that she had deserted it altogether, andthe cells were all full of pollen. Could you tell how this could beavoided?A. A queen-excluder of perforated zinc will prevent thequeen from going up.Q. Will strange queens sometimes unite with a queenlesscolony?A. Yes, sometimes it happens that a young queen may go intoanother hive than her own.Q. One morning I found six dead queens in front of thehives. Why do they have so many queens?A. Nature generally makes bountiful provision against dangerof failure. Take an apple tree, one that is thoroughly filledwith blossoms. What if every blossom should produce an apple?If there's one apple for every ten blossoms there will be a heavycrop. But if there should be merely enough blossoms for eachexpected apple, something might happen to a good many of them,and there would be a shortage in the crop. Same way with thebees. Hundreds of drones are reared for every one needed, so