No. 6. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 709 



MANNER OP SECURING CELLS. 



If considerable numbers of cells are required, it is always better 

 to have a colony of Carniolan bees, Caucasians, or some one of the 

 eastern races as cell builders, since they produce much greater 

 numbers, even fifty to one hundred cells in a single batch being quite 

 common. Being also excellent nurse bees, the food supplied to the 

 developing larvae is abundant, insuring more perfect development 

 than is the case with the nurse bees of less prolific races. The first 

 step is to make queenless a very populous colony; on the third day 

 thereafter the colony may be put into condition to receive queen 

 cells. There is no need of rejecting many of the cells which may 

 chance to have been formed in this colony, since, if properly man- 

 aged, they may be made to produce most excellent queens. For con- 

 venience, these incipient cells may be cut out and attached with 

 melted wax at regular intervals on a top bar. The larvae ranging 

 in age from forty to sixty hours are to be removed with a slightly 

 bent toothpick, and, in their place, are to be put, with the same in- 

 strument, larvse from twelve to thirty-six hours of age, taken from 

 the colony of the chosen queen. This substitution of young larvae 

 insures a full amount of food from the very beginning — even a sup- 

 erabundance. In choosing the cells to be placed on the bar, only 

 those having large bases upon which a normal sized cell may be 

 built, should be taken. Here, again, race-peculiarities have to be 

 considered, since the queen-cells ordinarily formed by eastern bees 

 are not as large in diameter as those produced by Carniolans. It 

 is therefore well to use care in this selection. 



The next step consists in the removal of all unsealed larvae from 

 the populous colony wdiich has been queenless during the preceding 

 two or three days. The object of this removal is to force the bees 

 to turn their whole attention to the fifty or more queen cells that 

 are supplied on bars. Should honey-gathering not be going on 

 freely, the colony engaged in the nursing of these queen cells is to 

 be fed daily a pint or more of syrup, care being taken, likewise, 

 that an abundance of pollen is present in the hive. If the weather 

 is cool and changeable, particularly if the temperature is low at 

 night, extreme care should be taken to afford the bees every facility 

 for the retention of the natural warmth of the brood nest. Since, 

 in substituting larvae from the breeding queen chosen, those larvae 

 having an age of twelve to thirty-six hours had better be selected, it 

 may be counted that the young queens will all emerge twelve and 

 one-half to thirteen and one-half days after the transferring or sub- 

 stitution of the larvae takes place. It will, therefore, be easy to 

 provide nuclei (or queenless colonies) for the reception of each one 

 of these queen cells. If, however, it is inconvenient to do this and 

 the cells have been placed at regular intervals upon the top bars, it 

 will not be found difficult to provide a small queen nursery, which 

 may merely consist of a series of wooden cages with wire-cloth sides 

 or small wire-cloth compartments, having a cell or cup in which a 

 small quantity of food may be placed, the cages being placed at 

 such intervals that the bar containing the cells when placed over 

 the cages, permits each cell to slip into a separate compartment. 

 It is by no means advisable to place the cells in a queen nursery 

 until the young queens are practically at the very point of emer- 

 gence, since the slightest neglect or chilling a day or two previous 



