90 MANUAL OF APICULTURE. 



taming eggs or very young larvse, or to cut out strips of comb about an 

 inch wide just below worker cells containing eggs or just-hatched larvae. 

 This practice gave the bees space in which to build perfect full-sized 

 cells, but it had certain disadvantages. Good worker combs were 

 mutilated, often quite ruined, in order to secure the construction of the 

 cells and also in cutting out the latter. Cells so formed are often in 

 groups so close together that they can not be separated without injury 

 to numbers of them, necessitating, if desirable to save all, a close watch, 

 or at least frequent examination, for hours or even days, since all the 

 queens are not likely to emerge at the same time. 



To remedy this Mr. O. H. Townsend, of Michigan, devised a plan which 

 is described in Gleanings in Bee Culture for July, 1880 (Vol. VIII, p. 322). 

 It consists in cutting combs whose cells contain eggs or freshly hatched 

 larvae into narrow strips and pinning or sticking these on the sides of 

 brood combs in such a manner that the cells containing the eggs or Iarva3 

 from which queens are desired shall open downward. Mr. Townsend 

 removed the larvae from some of the cells, believing that he secured 

 better developed queens by limiting the number, and also because he 

 could then cut them out more easily for insertion in separate hives. In 

 the succeeding number of Gleanings (August, 1880), Mr. J. M. Brooks, 

 of Indiana, illustrated a plan for securing even greater regularity. 

 This consists in shaving off the cells on one side down nearly to the 

 midrib of each strip of worker comb containing the eggs or larvae 

 selected to rear queens from, and then sticking these strips on the under- 

 sides of horizontal bars nailed in ordinary comb frames. Mr. Henry 

 Alley, in his work on queen rearing, published in 1883, recommends 

 sticking the prepared strips, shallow cells downward, on the lower edges 

 of combs which have been trimmed so as to round downward. This 

 leaves plenty of space for the full development of queen cells, the eggs 

 or larvae in alternate cells having been removed as in the plans previ- 

 ously mentioned. All conditions being favorable^ many cells conven- 

 iently located are thus secured, and if the exact age of the eggs or just- 

 hatched larvae has been noted the time the young queens will emerge 

 may be known beforehand, so that preparation can be made for them. 

 Nuclei small clusters of bees containing a quart to two quarts are to 

 be placed in separate hives and given combs, emerging brood, and a 

 supply of food, and to each of these a mature cell is to be given. The 

 nuclei thus prepared may be confined to their hives with wire cloth 

 and placed in a cellar for two or three days, and when set out, just at 

 dusk (p. 117), the bees will adhere to their new location. Full colonies, 

 whose queens it is desired to replace, may also be made queen less about 

 two or three days beforehand, and when mature the cells inserted 

 one each in these. In cutting out the cell a small piece of comb, 

 triangular shaped, 1 to 2 inches long and about 1J inches broad at 

 the top, is to be left attached to it whenever practicable, since it will 

 then be easy to insert it in one of the combs of the queenless colony 



