Show simulated spring speeds up romance among queen bees ORANGE CALIF bees are go ing to do their romancing early this year in some california hives thanks to the ingenuity of leroy bell orange apiarist who has be come a specialist in simulating spring weather seeking to offer his queen bees on the market before nature takes its hand in normally increasing the population bell had engineers of minneapolis honeywell regulator Begu lator company devise a weather system that stirs the dormant urge in in different drones the spring maker ly controls temperature in hives at a balmy 80 to 85 degrees and pro vides relative humidity of 60 to 65 per cent to carry the deception further bell has artificial idumma tion that brings dawn earlier and delays sunset he lets california sunshine ie take care of the daylight hours when the queens actually mate out of doors but the simulated springtime of the hives speeds the grafting of larvae from which new queens emerge |