Page:How to Keep Bees.djvu/198

 CHAPTER XIV

REARING AND INTRODUCING QUEENS

QUEEN-REARING

a small apiary there is little need for the special rearing of queens; the natural increase may safely be depended upon to supply all the colonies which lose their queens or which have unprofitable ones. It is always well for even the most casual bee-keeper to take the trouble to re-queen from his strongest and best colonies. However, the time when queen cells are naturally built may not be the most convenient or the most desirable time for giving certain colonies a new mother. This being the case, queens may be developed through the power of suggestion, as follows: Select a frame of brood from the best colony; with a toothpick tear down the partitions between three worker cells which contain eggs or larvæ less than two days old and destroy two of the eggs or larvæ; repeat the operation in several places. Place the frame back in the hive, being very sure that there is sufficient space between it and its neighbouring frame, so that good queen cells may be built. If there is a scarcity of honey, feed the bees. The cleverness of bees is clearly proven by the readiness with which they take a hint, and they 156