122 



ONE YEAR AMONG THE BEES. 



FIG. 18. Putting hives together. 



hive is first put in place, and wedged up tightly to its proper shape, 

 and when thus nailed it will take a hard knock to change it. Any 

 style of hive, whether dovetailed or any other style of corner used, 

 may thus be put up squarely and in proper shape. 



QUEEN-CELLS AND QUEEN REARING. 



Figure 19 is an ordinary frame of comb, and on it are seen queen- 

 cells from the time they are commenced until they are completed. 

 At 1 is a cell about four or five days old, 2 is six or seven days old, 

 and at .3 we have one completed at eight or nine days old ; and it thus 

 remains until the queen hatches, at sixteen days. Two others still 

 younger may be seen on the comb. This comb was used in what we 

 call artificial queen rearing; that is, these cells were built here by 

 the bees out of season, and not during swarming time, nor under the 

 swarming impulse. They were built here as an absolute necessity by 

 a queenless colony to produce a queen, as any colony will do at any 

 season of the year if they have brood in the combs young enough to 



