Better Queens

by Jay Smith

Overview

Jay Smith was one of the great beekeepers and queen breeders of all time. There are many queen breeding books by scientists or small-scale breeders, but this is by a beekeeper who raised thousands of queens every year. This is much more applicable to practical queen rearing. This is also a method that does not require grafting, good for those of us who can't see well enough to graft, and does not require the purchase of special equipment, good for those of us lacking in the funds to buy one of the graftless systems on the market.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781614760511
Publisher:	X-STAR PUBLISHING COMPANY
Publication date:	06/16/2011
Pages:	114
Sales rank:	201,756
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.27(d)
Age Range:	14 Years

About the Author

Jay Smith was an active writer in the bee journals of his day and wrote two of the most loved and used of the queen rearing books still being used and followed by many today. He is most famous for his other book, Queen Rearing Simplified, but this book is the culmination of his work in queen rearing.

Table of Contents

My First Recollection of Bees 1
Going West 1
Getting the Bee Fever 1
My First Swarm 3
Beginning the Study of Bees 3
Go to the Bee Thou Sluggard 3
Beginning Commercial Queen Rearing 5
Short Course in California 5
Queen Rearing Simplified 6
Shall the Beekeeper Rear His Own Queens? 7
How Bees Rear Queens in Nature 8
Queens Reared During Swarming 9
Queens Reared During Supersedure 10
Queen Alice 11
Queens Reared by the Emergency Method 11
Dr. Miller's Method 12
Artificial Queen Rearing-Its Development 13
G.M. Doolittle 13
The Grafting Method 14
The Desire for Better Cells Intensified 14
Fifteen Years of More Work 15
What the American Bee Journal Has to Say About Poor Queens 15
Yes, We Need to Know More 16
Experiments 16
The Alley System 17
Cells Built From New Combs 17
On the Road to Success 18
Hurrah! Success at Last 18
The Difference Between a Queen and a Worker 18
One of the Great Miracles of Nature 19
The Worker Bee as Fully Developed a Female as the Queen 20
For Best Results Follow Nature 21
Shortcomings of the Grafting Method 21
What Promised to be a Bright Idea Proved to be Very Dim 22
Bees in All Stages of Development from Worker to Queen 23
The Mating Flight is Not for Weaklings 24
Sombre Side of the Romance of the Honey Bee 25
Some Complications in the Bees' Domestic Affairs 25
Food and Yet More Food Makes the Perfect Queen 25
Importance of Food for the Young 26
Honey as Food for Man and Bees 26
A Homely Example 27
Importance of Food for the Queen Larva 28
The Case of the Two Virgins 28
An Amazing Spectacle 29
So Let Us Get to Work 30
The Breeder Hive 30
Keeping the Breeder Hive Stocked with Bees 33
The Feeder 33
Stocking the Breeder Hive 34
The Starter Hive 36
Food and Water Necessary to the Bees in the Starter Hive 37
Getting the Bees with Which to Stock the Starter Hive 37
Preparing the Cells 38
Putting the Prepared Cells Into the Starter Hive 41
Bees in Perfect Condition for Starting Cells 41
Program of These Rejoicing Bees 43
Finishing the Cells 44
Nurse Bees 46
Old Bees Good Nurses 46
Finishing the Cells-Continued 47
Caution 49
Reviewing the Past 49
Requirements of the Newly-Hatched Virgin 50
The Remedy 51
Early Experience in Cell Production 51
A Colony for Both Starting and Finishing 52
Three-Compartment Hive for Both Starting and Finishing 52
Starting and Finishing in the Same Hive Not Practical 52
Back to the Starter Hive 53
Queenless Colonies Best for Finishing Cells 53
Ability and Urge Necessary for Producing the Best Cells 53
Bees Having Access to Their Queen Lacking in Urge 54
The Question of Mating Hives 55
The Adolescent Hive 57
Bees Abscond More in Florida 59
Introducing the Cells 60
Stocking the Mating Hives 61
Why Bees Tear Down Cells 61
Well-Fed Bees Do Not Tear Down Cells 61
How Long Should the Bees be Confined to the Mating Hive? 62
Mating Hive Records 62
Introducing Queens 63
How Soon May a Queen Be Released Among the Bees? 65
Requirements of the Perfect Cage 65
The Push-in-the-Comb Cage 67
Does Opening the Hive Cause the Bees to Kill Their Queen? 68
The Home Yard Cage 68
Bee Candy 69
Shipping Queens 69
A Review 69
Starting Cells Every Third Day 70
Modifications for the Small Beekeeper 71
Mating Hives for the Small Beekeeper 72
Mating Queens in an Upper Story 72
Requeening by Giving a Ripe Cell 75
Clipping the Queen's Wings 75
Do Queen Cells Interfere with Introduction? 75
Breeding Queens 76
The Colony that Gave a Bumper Crop 76
Large Bees Better Gatherers 77
Artificial Insemination 77
Bees and Chess 78
Amusing Happenings 79
The Tramp and the Bees 80
The Professor and the Bees 82
Conclusion 83
Addendum: The Better Queens Method condensed 84