QUEEN BEE.

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16818, 9 June 1926, Page 8

QUEEN BEE.

SYSTEM OF REARING. LATEST PRINCIPLES EXPLAINED. The latest principles adopted for the purpose of rearing queen bees were demonstrated to the National Beekeepers' Conference, this morning by .Air A. B. Trythall, manager of the apiaries at Ruakura State Farm. He said ho often received visits from beekeepers from various parts of the Dominion, and also from novices who desired instruction. Experienced beekeepers exchanged ideas at the apiary and after assimilating and sifting the knowledge gained, incorporated the new ideas wilh their own methods. Queen-rearing was divided into natural and artificial classes, according to the nature of the colls they used. Whatever system was adopted, there shouid be a plentiful supply of drones, lie would advise all beekeepers to breed in hives as strong as possible. A good honey flow was essential and must be already there or produced by feeding. When the food was too strong, no production was fostered. If artificial food was used he would recommend a syrup mixture consisting of two parts water and one part sugar. For the proper production of queens the right principle was to have the brood headed by the queen confined in a box at the bottom. The top of the box should be perforated, and the holes covered with a screen that would not permit of the exit of the bees. On top of that another box was stacked with bees, and so on, the young broods being brought up from the bottom from time to time. He had adopted this system by using a large hive holding 20 frames, crowding the bottom with bees to form the nucleus of supply. The queen bees were excluded by a zinc covering, and as the process was repeated right through to the top box (here was no risk of natural queen cells being introduced into the combs. Thai was the broad principle which he followed, lie used the ordinary holding frames, though the cell-bars might be a little different to the usual form. He did not believe in the wax cells being too large, and they should be as uniform as possible for grafting purposes. He had very little use for nurseries, and believed in allowing the queen bee to emerge right on to the comb. In cases of premature hatching he might place the cells in the nurseries for 2i hours, or where hatching was at an advanced stage, and he had been delayed in his work, he would leave I lie development of the bees to the nurseries. Mr Trythall was aceorded a nearly vote of thanks for his address.