Better Queens by Jay Smith.pdf

Better Queens by Jay Smith
this colony I was astonished to see large well-developed queen cells such as I
had seldom seen. Upon further examining this colony I found that they had
torn down the comb and a number of worker cells and had built these fine
cells over the very small larvae in the cells.
Then the thought came to me, why not try the Alley system using all new
white combs? I went to my best breeding queen, removed all brood and
placed a new white comb between two combs containing honey and pollen.
The queen immediately began laying in it. After 24 hours this comb
containing eggs was placed over a strong colony above a queen excluder. As
soon as the eggs hatched I cut the comb in strips, mounted the strips on cell
bars so when given to the bees the cells would point downward. Huber then
removed the larvae in two cells leaving a larva in one till two bars were
prepared.
On the Road to Success
These prepared cells were then given to well-fed bees confined in a starter
hive. This was Saturday and I lay awake late in the night wondering if it would
work. In fact I lay awake all through church the following Sunday pondering
over this question. Would the bees accept the cells? If so, would they build
them out sufficiently so the bees that were to finish them would recognize
them as queen cells? Maybe they would tear them down or just finish them as
workers. I had intended leaving the cells with the bees in the starter hive for
the entire 24 hours but curiosity got the best of me, so right after church I
looked at them.
Hurrah! Success at Last
When I examined those cells it was by far the most inspiring sight in my
beekeeping life. Not only was every cell accepted and well developed but the
larvae were fairly flooded with bee milk although they were so small as to be
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