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<strong>Better</strong> <strong>Queens</strong> <strong>by</strong> <strong>Jay</strong> <strong>Smith</strong><br />
mating three days so nothing was saved in time but much was lost in the<br />
quality of the queen. Some queen breeders have advocated keeping the virgin<br />
in the cage for five days. Such queens are not worth introducing. It would be<br />
better to allow the bees to supersede their queens in the natural way than to<br />
introduce such worthless queens. To be sure, there may be more money in it<br />
for the producer of such queens in case he could continue to find buyers but<br />
the buyers certainly would not make a profit in the deal. So my cages went<br />
into the furnace and did more good there than they did in hindering the<br />
development of the virgins. I wish to take just one more dig at another<br />
abomination and then we will get on to constructive work. That abomination<br />
is the wire queen cell protector. I understand that this bright (?) idea was<br />
conceived <strong>by</strong> two men about the same time and they came near developing a<br />
regular Kentucky feud as to who deserved the credit for inventing it. They<br />
might just as well have remained good friends for really there was nothing<br />
worth quarreling over. In using these cell protectors one is fighting bee nature<br />
and in such a fight the bee wins. The idea of the cell protector is that as bees<br />
tear down the cells at the side and not the ends, <strong>by</strong> protecting the sides the<br />
bees cannot tear them down so the virgins are allowed to emerge. Again we<br />
are trying to force the bees to accept cells they do not want for if they could get<br />
to them they would tear them down. So what are the bees going to do about<br />
it? They do just this about it. Figuratively speaking, they just sit down in their<br />
easy chairs and keep an eye on that cell and<br />
when that impudent ba<strong>by</strong> dares to poke its head out of that cell they pounce<br />
upon it and tear it to bits. They simply will not tolerate having that unwanted<br />
ba<strong>by</strong> planted on their door step. Once more we are attempting to force the<br />
bees to do something against their will.<br />
The Remedy<br />
What can we do about it? Do not attempt to force the bees to do your<br />
http://www.bushfarms.com/beesbetterqueenswpics.htm (76 of 119)20-12-2006 21:42:55
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