NURSERY CAGES 43 



for a day or two, until room can be made for them. Then 

 some breeders make a practice of allowing the young queens to 

 emerge in the nursery cages before placing them in the nuclei. 

 In this case, cages will be necessary. 



There is a considerable percentage of loss when queens 

 are permitted to remain several days in the cage. Some will 

 creep back into the cell and be unable to back out again, while 

 others will die from other causes. Sometimes, the bees will 

 feed them through the wire cloth, but this is not to be depended 

 upon, and the cages must be stocked with candy to insure 

 plenty of feed within reach. Doolittle advocates smearing a 

 drop of honey on the small end of the cell when placing it in 

 the nursery, in order to provide the queen with her first meal 

 as soon as she cuts the capping of the cell. Candy is also pro- 

 vided to furnish food in sufficient quantity during the period 

 that she is confined in the cage. The cages must be kept warm, 

 of course, while the cells are incubating, and for this purpose 

 they are usually left hanging in the hive with a strong colony. 

 However, the bees will not keep the cells in cages sufficiently 

 warm after the weather gets cool in late fall, nor in early spring. 

 At such times it becomes necessary to provide a nursery heated 

 with a lamp or other artificial heat, in which the frames of 

 nursery cages can be hung. 



Some queen breeders utilize an ordinary poultry incubator 

 for this purpose, maintaining it at the normal hive temper- 

 ature. 



E. B. Ault of Texas has fitted up an outdoor cellar with 

 artificial heat for the purpose of incubating his sealed queen 

 cells. 



