FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 1S5 



ing no communication with the bees below. In the old 

 hive below the old queen was sometimes left, and some- 

 times the bees were left without any queen ; but in either 

 case care was taken that no queen-cell was left below, 

 and ten days later search was made for queen-cells be- 

 low, or else the brood was exchanged for brood from a 

 colony where there was no danger of queen-cells, and 

 the old queen was removed. To the "put-up" was given, 

 at the time of putting up, a virgin queen or a ripe queen- 

 cell, and as soon as the young queen was laying the old 

 hive w^as taken away and the "put-up'' hive was put 

 down in its place. Thus the whole force of the colony 

 was kept together, there was a young queen of the cur- 

 rent year's rearing, practically reared in the hive, and 

 that colony was past the anxiety for the season. Some, 

 however, say that such a queen will swarm with them. 



GETTING BEES TO DESTROY CELLS. 



I said the brood was put up, but said nothing about 

 the bees or the queen-cells. No attention was paid to 

 the queen-cells, and about half the bees were shaken off 

 the combs — perhaps more than half. Just how many 

 bees to leave in the "put-up" hive was not an easy matter 

 to gauge. If too few there would be chilled brood. 

 If too many the young queen would leave with a swarm. 

 Of course the latter danger could be avoided by destroy- 

 ing all queen-cells in the **put-up," but that would make 

 more work, and if there are few enough bees all super- 

 fluous cells will be destroyed by the bees themselves, and 

 there will be no danger of swarming. 



NUCLEUS TO PREVENT SWARMING. 



A modification of the plan somtimes used was to 

 take a nucleus from somewhere else and put in the place 

 of the colony. But in this case the colony was made 

 queenless two or three days in advance. Either plan 

 left the colony without any diminution of its forces, and 



