BEE-KEEPING IN HOT CLIMATES. 105 



desert their baby hives, never having known any other home 

 to which they could return. Moreover, up to the age of two 

 days or so they will accept any queen— whether virgin or 

 fertile — we may wish to give them, without any formalities 

 of introduction. 



For hatching small lots of bees I have found the " Texas " 

 incubators quite satisfactory. They are made by the New 

 Poultry Syndicate, of Clonbrock Road, Stoke Newington, 

 London, and are quite the cheapest obtainable, the 15 egg 

 size (which will hold six sections) costing only 16s. complete, 

 while the 30 egg size (which will hold a dozen or more sections) 

 costs 21s. Before the war these incubators cost 2s. 6d. and 

 5s. each respectively. As it is not necessary to maintain such 

 high temperature for hatching bees as chickens, the tin lid 

 of this incubator may be dispensed with, while the felt cover 

 provided with the machine should be supplemented with some 

 more felt or flannel to keep out the cold that may enter at 

 spots where the felt cover does not quite cover up the sections, 

 which in most cases stand a little higher than the edge of the 

 incubator's outer case. Care must, however, be taken to 

 leave little holes or spaces for ventilation. In all other 

 respects the printed directions for hatching hens' eggs, 

 sent with each of these incubators, should be followed, 

 excepting that the sand in the tin should not be wetted, 

 and the heat we should aim at maintaining should be from 

 85° to 95°. 



When nuclei are to be formed on a large scale these little 

 incubators are, of course, quite inadequate. A very large 

 chicken incubator should then be employed, although with 

 care I have used an ordinary plant propagator (which is much 

 cheaper) with great success. 



Converting Sections into Miniature Frames. 



Before placing the sections of sealed brood in the incubator, 

 a thin strip of wood, 4| inches long by | inch broad and ^ inch 

 thick, should be screwed to the top of each section with little 

 screws h inch long. These strips or bars will thus extend 

 J inch beyond the sides of the sections, and, becoming thin top 

 bars, will convert each section into a little frame, which, when 

 the bees are hatched out, we may hang in a little nucleus 



