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Improved Queen-Rearing; or, How to Rear Large, Prolific, Long-Lived Queen Bees / The Result of Nearly Half a Century's Experience in Rearing Queen Bees, Giving the Practical, Every-day Work of the Queen-Rearing Apiary cover

Improved Queen-Rearing; or, How to Rear Large, Prolific, Long-Lived Queen Bees / The Result of Nearly Half a Century's Experience in Rearing Queen Bees, Giving the Practical, Every-day Work of the Queen-Rearing Apiary

Chapter 43: DESTROYING QUEEN-CELLS WHEN INTRODUCING QUEENS
By Henry Alley
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About This Book

A practical manual for beekeepers detailing techniques for producing robust, fertile queen bees. It explains hive and brood-frame construction, three methods of cell-building, preparing and handling eggs and young workers, forming and feeding nuclei, and managing drones. The text covers queen care from rearing to mating and introduction, use of queen nurseries and frames, equipment such as drone traps and a tobacco pipe for smoke, and hive management to prevent honey candying. Emphasis is placed on step-by-step, experience-based procedures and apiary organization for both small- and large-scale queen production.

DESTROYING QUEEN-CELLS WHEN INTRODUCING QUEENS

As stated on a previous page, some queen-cells will be built on the combs that have brood in them. It will not be necessary to look the combs over and destroy those cells if a young queen is introduced. In the course of twenty-four hours after the queen gets possession of the combs, she will destroy the cells, that is, the queen will open them near the base and sting the nymph, or nearly matured queen as the case may be, and the bees will soon finish the work of destroying the cell, and removing the dead queen. There are, however, exceptions to this rule, and once in a while a young queen is permitted to “hatch out” and take possession of the colony. In that case, the queen just introduced is destroyed. This so seldom happens, and does not happen at all except in cases where an old queen is introduced, that it is not worth while to spend time in looking the combs over for queen-cells.