98 HOW TO KEEP BEES 



should be filled with honey. The cells containing 

 bee-bread are not capped, as this staff of bee life is 

 packed so hard that it does not need to be covered. 

 All honey remains uncapped until it is properly 

 evaporated and ripened. (Plate VIII.) 



After one frame has been thus examined, it should 

 be leaned up against the side of the hive so as to give 

 space to lift out the next frame without crushing the 

 bees. 



HOW TO FIND THE QUEEN CELL 



Fortunately for us, this is quite prominent, being 

 a veritable oriel in shape. However, there may be 

 other excrescences of the comb which somewhat 

 resemble a queen cell ; sometimes the queen cell may 

 be more or less embedded and so escape observation. 

 The bee-keeper who is cocksure that he can find all 

 the queen cells in his hives has to be most experienced, 

 and even then cocksureness may come to grief. 

 But this unglazed oriel window in which the queen 

 develops is usually quite noticeable, and is ordi- 

 narily decorated with a small, hexagonal pattern 

 in relief. We have often wondered if this was 

 done for the sake of decoration, or because the 

 bees are so in the habit of fashioning wax into 

 hexagonal patterns that they do it involuntarily. 

 For the person who rashly asserts that honey- 

 comb is the result of fortuitous force and pres- 

 sure, this queen cell with its hexagonal frescoes 

 is a poser. (Plate V.) 



To cut out the queen cell a sharp, pointed knife 



