20 



THE REARING OF QUEEN BEES. 



to use cell bars holding sixteen cells each, and two or three of these 

 bars are fastened in one Langstroth frame. Frequently two or even 

 three such frames are put in one hive; but usually part of the cells are 

 sealed or in nurseries, so that there are usually not more than fifty at 

 a time which require feeding. These cells may also be ])ut in any 

 colou}^ with a laying queen, pro^dded an incubating cage of perforated 

 zinc is placed around them (see ligs. 4 and .5), or in the second story of 

 a two-story colony, with the queen kept below by a perforated zinc 

 hone}^ board (see hg. 3). 



STYLES OF NURSERY CAGES. 



One day before the (jueens are due to emerge, each cell must be 

 placed in an individual nursery, so that the young emerging ((ucens 

 can not attack each other. This nursery may be made of wire cloth 



Fig. 9.— Titoff nurseries in frame holder, showing construction of nursery (original). 



or of perforated zinc, but Avire cloth is perhaps better, since in one or 

 two cases in our apiary, during the past summer, young virgin queens 

 managed to get through the perforated zinc and to do some damage 

 before being discovered. The cell should not be put in a wire-cloth 

 nursery more than one day before the queen is due to emerge, for the 

 workers should be allowed to thin down the wall of the cell so that the 

 queen will have no difficulty in gnawing her wa}^ out. Even when 

 separated from the workers by wire cloth for one day, the queen 

 usually takes a longer time in getting out, but no queen which has 

 vitality enough to become a prolific layer will ever entirely fail to do so. 

 Many different kinds of nnrsery cages have been advocated, and 

 really there is little choice, between them, each queen breeder prefer- 

 ring the one he has used, the choice frequently being made without 

 trying any other. Before making a choice, however, it would be w^ise 



