QUEENS 157 



almost invariably build queen cells upon the comb 

 thus treated. 



This method we have found perfectly satisfactory, 

 but for those who rear queens for sale, other very 

 interesting practices have been invented. The 

 greatest of these was devised by Mr. Doolittle, one 

 of the foremost queen-breeders in America. He makes 

 artificial queen cells by dipping a small, smoothly 

 rounded stick in warm wax repeatedly, thus making 

 a little cup, thin at the edge and thick at the bottom. 

 Rows of these little cups are placed on a bar the thick- 

 ness of a brood-frame and fastened there with hot 

 wax. In each cup is introduced a bit of royal jelly 

 and a very young larva. The bar is then inserted 

 horizontally into a frame of brood-comb, part of 

 the latter being cut away to give room for the future 

 cells, which project down from the bar. In such 

 a royal nursery, he develops his queens for the mar- 

 ket. 



INTRODUCING QUEENS 



Though royalty in the hive is of quite another 

 feather than in human society, yet there is quite as 

 much ado when it comes to installations in one as 

 in the other. While a bee-colony is absolutely 

 devoted to its own queen, it may seriously object 

 to a queen thrust upon it by some outside power. 

 And thus it happens that the introduction of a new 

 queen into a hive is fraught with danger to her 

 majesty as well as to the pocket-book of the bee- 

 keeper. 



