FIFTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES 261 



ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF A QUEEN NURSERY. 



If a ripe queen-cell is given to a nucleus or colony, 

 there is no way to be sure that a queen that is all right 

 will issue from it. She may be imperfect as to her legs, 

 and, what is still worse, her wings may be so deficient that 

 she never can fly. If she can not fly she can never be 

 fertilized, and so is worthless. Indeed she is worse than 

 worthless, for she is wasting the time of the nucleus. 

 Sometimes, indeed, it happens that the occupant of the 

 queen-cell is dead. All of this is avoided by having the 

 virgins hatch out in a nursery. If a cell is cut into, and 

 is given to a nucleus, the bees will at once destroy it, but 

 in the nursery it will hatch out all right. 



One may have a lot of queen-cells on hand with no 

 immediate use for them. It will not do to leave them 

 without cutting out beyond a certain time, for the hatch- 

 ing out of the first one means the death of all the rest. 

 But if they are put in a nursery they are safe, and may 

 be left stored in the nursery for some days after hatching 

 out. 



Over against these advantages stands the one disad- 

 vantage that in the nursery the bees are not allowed to 

 come in immediate bodily contact with the cells, nor with 

 the young queen after she issues from the cell. Some 

 think this so serious a disadvantage as to overbalance all 

 the advantages of the nursery. It is claimed that the 

 clustering of the bees about the cells and the young 

 queens does more than merely to keep up the tempera- 

 ture to a certain point, and that when this close contact is 

 lacking something will be lacking in the resulting queens. 

 Also that the young queens thus isolated and imprisoned 

 are in a frightened condition, and that a young queen 

 reared in such an atmosphere is not the same as one that 

 has the feeling that she is all the while closely surrounded 

 by friends. 



So whether it be wise to use a nursery or not, it will 

 certainly be wise not to put cells into it before it is neces- 



