Better Queens

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