THE MAKING OF A QUEEN

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Scientists don't understand how the "magic" substance works, or even exactly what all it contains—oh, the unsolved marvels of apiculture!—but they do know that queen bees are raised entirely on royal jelly, while workers-to-be are fed the mysterious food for only the first three days of their lives.

I had already spotted the tiny, white, uncurled "specks" of one- to three-dayold larvae (see Fig. 1) in the original hive, so I knew the colony contained some royal-jelly-fed youngsters that had the potential to become queens. To pro vide a further stimulus, I created an artificial honey flow by filling three quart jars with a 1/4-to-3/4 sugarand-water mix, poking small holes in the containers' lids, and inverting these feeders in the space left by the hive's four missing frames. I then reassembled the hive.

Within ten days, the bees had created eight queen cells (Fig. 2). I took out a frame containing one of the peanutshaped holders, and another with two queen cells, and used these—along with some brood—in order to start two more small colonies.

That left me with five queen cells in the original hive. The first insect to hatch out would destroy her unborn sisters. If more than one emerged simultaneously, the throneseekers would fight until only the strongest bee survived to become the new queen.

The addition of a frame containing one- to three-day-old larvae can help renew a hive that for any reason has lost its queen. In my case, using this technique to increase my apiary meant that I once again had two strong colonies . . . in addition to a pair of up-and-coming new hives. Best of all, that summer I was able to, once more, harvest a 100-pound honey crop!

EDITOR'S NOTE: MOTHER NO. 67 carried an introductory article on apiculture, "Beekeeping Basics". See page 116 for information on how to order back issues.

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