23S FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEE3 



story with the old queen still below. The bees that had 

 gone up to that frame of brood were so far from the 

 queen that they had reared a queen of their own. A 

 hole in the upper story had allowed the flight of the 

 young queen without invading the domains of her 

 mother. For those who produce extracted honey this 

 plan might be used to advantage. 



UNOUEENIXG COLONY TO START CELLS. 



I have reared good queens by the old and simple 

 plan of taking away the queen of a strong colony. Of 

 course this must be a choice queen. Previous to the re- 

 moval of the queen the colony is strengthened. Frames 

 of well-advanced brood are from time to time given from 

 other colonies until it has two — perhaps three — stories 

 of brood. None of this brood, however, is given less 

 than five or six days before the removal of the queen. 

 The queen is taken with two frames of brood and ad- 

 hering bees and put on a new stand in an empty hive, an 

 empty comb and one with some honey being added. 



TIME TO START XL'CLEL 



In nine or ten days from the removal of the queen 

 it is time to break up the queenless colony into nuclei. 

 It might generally be left till a day or two Fter before a 

 young queen would come out to destroy her baby sisters 

 in their cradles, but it is best to take no chances. If it 

 were true, as formerly believed, that queenless bees are 

 in such haste to rear a queen that they will select a 

 larva too old for the purpose, then it would hardly do to 

 wait even nine days. A queen is matured in fifteen days 

 from the time the eg^ is laid, and is fed throughout her 

 larval lifetime on the same food that is given to a 

 worker-larva during the first three days of its larval ex- 

 istence. So a worker-larva more than three days old, or 

 more than six days from the laying of the egg would be 



