MillerThousand AnswersBeekeepingQuestions.pdf - BioBees

190 DR. miller'sswarm, go to the hive each evening after the bees have quieteddown, put your ear to the side of the hive and listen for the pipingof the young queen, which you will hear as soon as she issuesfrom her cell. You will have no difficulty distinguishing her sharp,clear tones, even if you have never heard a queen pipe before.The other virgins in their cells will quahk in reply. Xow go tothe hive next morning and cut out all cells, but look sharpthat none of the virgins escape which have gnawed open the cappingof the cell, but are kept prisoners by the workers. In "FiftyYears Among the Bees" I have very fully detailed the way inwhich I rear queens for my own use, a plan I would use if I hadonly half a dozen colonies. I think it might pay you well to getthe book just for that part alone.Q. Is there a better way of rearing queens for an amateurwithout queen-rearing tools, when queens are wanted before theswarming season? If so, please explain. (Iowa.)A. You don't need any special queen-rearing outfit for tenqueens a year, nor for 100. I'll tell you how you can rear just asgood queens as can be reared from your stock, with no otheroutfit than what every beekeeper is supposed to have on hand.Take a frame out of the hive containing your best queen, andput in its place a frame with a starter an inch or so deep. A weekor so later you will find the bees have filled the frame three-quartersfull, more or less, with new comb, with larvae well advanceddown to eggs around the outside edge. Trim ofif the outer edgethat contains only eggs, leaving the larvae. It isn't easy to beexact about this, and it isn't very particular, only don't cut awayany of the larvs ; no harm if you leave some of the eggs. Indeed,i*^ is not absolutely necessary to cut off any of the comb; onlythat outer margin is in the bees' way. Now put your preparedcomb in the middle of a strong colony from which you have removedthe queen, and in nine or ten days cut out the cells andgive them to nuclei. In about two weeks later you ought to findmost of them changed into laA'ing queens. You see, it isn't avery complicated matter, and needs no special outfit.You note that I give no date as to when you are to do thesethings. I can't, because it may be three weeks later one year thananother. But be sure not to begin too early. In your locality, ifyou were to begin in March you wouldn't get one good queen outof twenty. Figure so as to give the brood to the queenless colonywhen the bees are working prosperously in the fields. In your