MillerThousand AnswersBeekeepingQuestions.pdf - BioBees

n DR. DULLER SQ. I am working my bees for extracted honey exclusively,and use a three-story hive. Can I requeen my apiary by rearmgyoung queens in the upper story by employing two queen-excludinghoney-boards, one over the brood-nest, and one under thetop story in which the new queen stays? Of course, I must borea hole in the back of the super from which the young queen canfly. Will I get rid of the nuisance of finding my young queenkilled, or at least gone, when I take a notion to hunt out the oldqueen and decapitate her?A. Years ago I was delighted to succeed in the way you outline,but of late years failures have been the rule, so I have giveny»immsvmmem&^miif^mA^^^^Fig. 24 —OticL-n-cells built on a comb specially prepared.it up. I don't know what makes the difference, unless it be thatoriginally the upper story with the young queen was moreisolated. The farther up the top story, the better. Indeed, thefirst time I had a queen reared and laying in an upper story wasan accident, and there was not even an excluder in the case. Iput three or four stories of empty combs over a colony to havethe bees take care of the combs, and in order to make the beestraverse the ^\hole, I put some brood in the upper story—no excluderanywhere. After some time I was surprised to find a youngqueen laying in the upper story. The bees had reared her fromthe brood, and it happened that there was a leak under the coverwhich she could fly through. In my later attempts there has notbeen so great isolation, and it might be worth while for me to