PRACTICAL BEEKEEPING 63 



sirable to have will depend on the number of queens to be reared. 

 Ordinarily each nucleus will turn out two to three queens each 

 month if properly handled. 



The cells, when within a couple of days of the time of emerg- 

 ing, which will be about five days after sealing, may be removed from 

 the colony where reared and distributed one to each of the nuclei. 

 The next day the nuclei should be examined to see if the cells are 

 accepted. If any are destroyed they should be replaced. Then the 

 cells should be watched and the day of emergence noted. 



Usually four or five days and sometimes even a week will elapse 

 after the emergence before the young queen takes her bridal flight. 

 She may fly several times before fertilization is accomplished, but 

 when accomplished it will be denoted by regular deposition of eggs. 

 Sometimes a newly .mated queen can be seen upon the comb having 

 but just returned from her flight. A white spot is plainly visible 

 upon the tip of the abdomen where the portion of the drones re- 

 productive organ retained in the act of copulation is still seen. In 

 opening nuclei containing virgin queens, care should be taken not 

 to alarm them lest they take wing and perhaps, if they have not 

 yet flown, may not get back into the right nucleus. For this reason 

 it is well to have nuclei pretty well separated. Sometimes, on the 

 return of a newly mated queen, the bees, taking a dislike to the 

 odor, of the drone about her, may pitch upon and ball her, so dis- 

 abling her that she is of little or no value. There occurences, how- 

 ever, are not very common. 



A young queen thus regularly laying is ready for use about 

 the apiary or for sending out by mail to other parties desiring- queens. 

 Such a queen when sold is classed as an untested queen, since her 

 exact mating is not known. Upon keeping a queen three or four 

 weeks, until her progeny have emerged, she is classed as a tested 

 queen if her workers prove her to have been purely mated ; that is, 

 with a drone of the same race or variety. It is to be noticed in 

 this connection that the daughter of a pure or imported queen, no 

 matter what her mating is, will produce drones of the race of 

 which she came, since they come from unfertilized eggs. Her 

 workers and queens, bred from her, however, necessarily partake of 

 the character of the drone with which she mated. 



The disposition of the young queens when fertilized and ready 

 for use, leads us into the discussion of the mailing of queens and 



