126 BEGINNER'S BEE BOOK 



placed in each of the hives which are to be re- 

 queened. The queen to be replaced must be 

 removed about twelve hours before the cell is 

 given, or it may not be accepted. The cell 

 should be fastened carefully in the center of the 

 brood nest to insure that it will not be chilled. 

 One cell must be left in the parent colony to 

 replace the queen taken away in the beginning, 

 unless she is to be returned. 



By this method the queens are mated from 

 the hives in which they are to remain, and the 

 beekeeper only needs to make sure that the col- 

 onies where the young queen fails to return 

 safely from the mating trip are given another 

 cell or queen. While this plan is simple and 

 w^ill serve all purposes where but a few queens 

 are wanted, it is too slow for extensive use. 



When large numbers of queen cells are 

 wanted, artificial cells, made of beeswax and 

 shaped as nearly as possible like an embryo 

 queen cell are utilized. To begin with, a colony 



