QUEEN-RE AEING. 



351 



QUEEN-REARING. 



right hand uses the grafting tool to take a 

 speck of the royal jelly, about the size of the 

 head of a pin. This is then placed in the 

 bottom of one of the compressed cups. 

 Other cups are treated in the same way until 

 the whole series of cells is provisioned. 



If one should run short of compressed 

 cups he can, with a keen-edged knife, cut ofi: 

 the old cell, from which the queen has hatch- 

 ed, even with the wood, and then with the 

 plunger-stick ream out the hole in the cell- 



nnr 



LIFTING A LARVA OUT OF A WOKKER-CELL. 



holder. This hole can be grafted in the 

 manner already explained; but it will be 

 found preferable to use the compressed 

 cups, as better results will thus be secured. 

 The next operation is to take a comb of 

 very young larvae, just hatched, from a breed- 



ing queen. In an atmosphere not cooler 

 than 75 or 80 degrees (the warmer the bet- 

 ter) a young larva is scooped or lifted up out 

 of a worker-cell with the flattened end of the 

 grafting tool, and deposited in the royal 

 jelly of one of the compressed cups, and so 

 on until all the cups are grafted. And just 

 here it is proper to remark that this royal 

 jelly serves a double purpose. It alfords a 

 downy bed, so to speak, in which to lay tlie 

 larva, and at the same time provides food 

 until the bees can give it a fresh supply. 

 Despite the claim that royal jelly is not 

 necessary we get more cells accepted with it. 

 Some queen-breeders say that a frame of 

 these cells may now be put in the upper 

 story of a strong colony, the two stories be- 

 ing separated by a perforated zinc honey- 

 board. (See Extractors.) While such up- 

 per stories can be used with advantage to 

 complete cells that the bees of a queenless 

 colony have already accepted, we find them 

 practically worthless for starting them. 

 While an ordinary queenless colony supplied 

 with brood will sometimes accept all the 

 cells, we find it better to make such colony 

 queenless and broodless, by giving the brood 

 temporarily to other hives, and caging the 

 queen over another colony. The deprived 

 colony is then given a couple of frames of 

 honey and a feeder of syrup with the 

 frame of prepared cells placed down be- 

 tween frames of honey, one hour after being 

 made queenless and broodless. We find it 

 still betterto shake all the bees at the time 

 of doing this in front of the entrance, and 

 make them crawl in. It is absolutely essen- 

 tial that they be fed several days prior to the 

 giving of the cells, and also during the time 



FULLY COMPLETED QUEEN-CELLS BUILT ON WOODEN CELL-HOLDERS. 



