From: "kdmalone" <kdmalone@ideafamilies.org>
Date: Thu, 3 Jan 2002 14:47:54 -0800
To: <BiologicalBeekeeping@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: "Better Queens"

Hi All,

I just acquired a 1949 copy of "Better Queens" by Jay Smith. In this
publication Jay advocates that his old method of grafting larva for queen
rearing is inferior to the method he adopted later as described in this
book. This is what he writes on page 23 heading "Yes' We Need To Know More";
"So let me tell you. It is safe to say that 95 % of the cases of premature
supersedure are caused by improper feeding of the young queen larva. (To
keep this statement in context he is referring to queen failures that
resulted in package bees in 1947 in the USA.) The grafting system simply
will not produce the best queens. A package shipper who uses queens reared
direct from the egg reported to me that he did not have a single complaint
about premature supersedure but , on the contrary, had scores of letters
praising the performance of the queens and the splendid work the package
bees did. Queens must be reared direct from the egg and the finishing colony
must be fed honey for best results."

In this book he describes how to rear queens direct from the egg. It is a
system adopted from a system that Henry Alley used.

Keith Malone
Chugiak, Alaska USA
starrier@yahoo.com
http://takeoff.to/alaskahoney