Links below to get his books on Queen Rearing.
Born October 13th 1871, Tampico, Illinois
Died: October 30th 1926, Vincennes, Indiana
Jay Smith was an active writer in the bee journals of his day and wrote two of the most loved and used of the queen rearing books still being used and followed by many today. He is most famous for his other book, Queen Rearing Simplified, but his second book, Better Queens, written 25 years later is the culmination of his work in queen rearing.
From Michael Bush’s website where both of Mr. Smith’s books may be read in their entirety:
“I wanted this book available because I think Jay Smith was one of the great beekeepers of all time and one of the great queen breeders of all time. There are many queen breeding books by scientists or small-scale breeders, but this is by a beekeeper who raised thousands of queens every year. I think that is much more applicable to practical queen rearing. It is also a method that does not require grafting, good for those of us who can’t see well enough to graft, and does not require the purchase of special equipment, good for those of us lacking in the funds to buy one of the graftless systems on the market.” Michael Bush
Biography and Contributions to Beekeeping
Born in Tampico, Illinois, Jay Smith was one of the most skilled queen breeders in American history. His books Queen Rearing Simplified (1923) and Better Queens (1949) set out practical methods, including rearing queens in strong colonies and the Jay Smith cell-starter. Queen breeders still study his methods today.
Better Queens (1949) and Queen Rearing Simplified include photos of his methods and equipment. Scanned copies are on the Internet Archive (archive.org). Michael Bush also hosts a transcription of Better Queens on his website, bushfarms.com.
Old bee journal archives. Jay Smith, who worked out of Vincennes, Indiana, wrote often for Gleanings in Bee Culture and the American Bee Journal from the 1910s to the 1940s.
Click on photos below to read the books.
From the Find a Grave Website:
