Queen rearing, like most operations common to present day bee culture, is of comparatively recent development. In the first edition of Langstroth's book he discussed at length the methods of increase common to that time. He noted that Schirach was, apparently, the first to discover that the bees could rear a queen from worker brood. This discovery laid the foundation for the investigations and experiments which were one day to develop a system of management permitting the rearing of queen bees in large numbers.

Langstroth also commented on Huber's plan of increasing the number of colonies by dividing the colony into two parts and permitting the bees in the queenless section to rear another for themselves. This method offered little advantage over natural swarming and made no substantial advance.

Another early attempt was to start a new colony by placing a piece of comb containing eggs or young larvae in an empty hive placed where the parent colony had stood. With the old hive removed to a new location, the field bees would return to the old stand and queen cells would be started at once. With little comb space available and no queen present, the bees would build new combs of mostly drone cells and the result was disappointing.

Langstroth recommended, instead, the making of forced swarms. To accomplish this he turned the hive upside down and set an empty one over it. The bees were driven upward by drumming on the hive until bees and queen were mostly in the upper story. This was then set on a new hive stand and the old hive returned to its former position. Returning field bees and emerging brood provided enough of a force to carry on as usual. Queen cells would be started at once in the old hive, while the newly prepared colony was kept confined until the evening of the third day, usually being placed in the cellar to insure quiet.

With such forced swarms a few days ahead of the time when most increase was to be made, the beekeeper would find in his hives an excess number of queen cells. These extra cells provided the means of making divisions and supplying each with the material for a queen with a minimum of delay. The ripe queen cell was cut from the comb on which it was built and inserted in the comb of the newly prepared colony.

When ripe cells were available, it was easy to make increase by removing frames of brood to a new hive and giving such a cell with a queen nearly ready to emerge. The making of increase by the formation of nuclei appears to have been the result of experiment by both Langstroth and Dzierzon working independently. While it provided the beekeeper a means of making substantial increase, it was practical only for use at home. There still remained the necessity of finding ways and means of meeting the needs of those at a distance who lacked the proper equipment until it could be purchased. The shipping of full colonies of bees was expensive and difficult. But let any imperative demand appear and human ingenuity will find a way to meet it.

Since a colony can be renewed quickly by means of the introduction of a new queen, it would be necessary only to buy a queen to change the entire stock in the colony within a few weeks of time. Hardly could the present-day demand for bees and queens be foreseen in the days of Langstroth.

Langstroth started the rearing of queens by depriving a colony of its queen until it had sealed queen cells. These cells were then removed and a queen given them from another hive. As soon as this second hive had performed in similar manner, the queen was moved into the third. By moving her back and forth between the three hives, alternately permitting her to lay for about a week at a time in each, he was able to secure a considerable number of queens. Since first one hive and then the other was queenless for a time, there was always a batch of cells coming on in one or the other. This beginning at queen rearing in 1852 had not been possible previously because of the lack of control of the combs prior to the invention of the loose hanging frame.

Little advance was made from Langstroth's first method, here described, for many years. In 1876, when Cook published his Manual of the Apiary, he had nothing better to offer in the way of rearing queens than to deprive a colony of its queen in order to start the bees to building queen cells. He stated that sometimes as many as fifteen or twenty would thus be provided. He did propose cutting off the edges of the combs, or cutting holes in them, to provide suitable spots for starting the cells.

A statement which appeared in the National Bee Journal to the effect that eggs of the honeybee could safely be sent by mail was responsible for starting A. I. Root off on a new trail. In Gleanings for April, 1873, Root offered to send a piece of comb containing freshly-laid eggs from an imported Italian queen, for twenty-five cents. Root saw in this the opportunity to furnish Italian stock to the mass of beekeepers at small expense, and was much disappointed with its failure. When put to the test, he found that eggs would hatch and produce good queens when sent a short distance, but in no case did they retain any vitality when two or more days were occupied in transit. This experiment thus required but a very short time to demonstrate its futility.

Root's next move was to undertake the rearing of queens in the upper story of a strong colony. He separated the two divisions of the hive by means of a thick sheet of manila paper, and opened an entrance in the upper story to permit normal activity. In this way he secured forty-six queen cells in one hive. By cutting new comb into strips he offered special inducements for the building of cells. The queens were cared for by placing them in small cages and placing them with the bees, much as Langstroth had done at the time of his first experiment in queen rearing.