72 PRACTICAL QUEEN REARING 



already, under the discussion of the various methods. A strong 

 colony which is preparing to supersede the queen is very desir- 

 able at this time. Such a colony will accept cells readily and 

 will supply them with royal jelly abundantly. No better cells 

 can be had than those built in a supersedure colony. It will 

 pay to look through the apiary very carefully in search of such 

 a colony, rather than to resort to artificial conditions. A colony 

 which is preparing to swarm, will do very well, also, only they 

 must be watched carefully, to make sure that a swarm does 

 not issue as soon as the cells are sealed. When a colony is 

 found to have queen cells already built which contain eggs or 

 larvae, these cells may be destroyed and a frame of prepared 

 cells given. Little attention need be paid to the presence of 

 the queen, for she will not disturb the new cells under such con- 

 ditions. 



If no colony is to be had which is already in the cell-build- 

 ing notion, it then becomes necessary to stimulate the cell- 

 building instinct artificially. There are several methods of 

 doing this. 



Removing Queen and Brood. 



Probably the most generally practiced method is to take 

 a strong colony, and remove the queen and all unsealed brood. 

 Empty combs and those which contain only honey and pollen 

 are left in the hive. The queen should be placed in a nucleus, 

 or given to another colony where needed. All bees should be 

 carefully brushed from the combs containing the brood in order 

 to leave as large a force of nurse bees as possible. The brood 

 is then given to another colony to be cared for. 



About ten or twelve hours later the bees will be in the mood 

 to build queen cells. Being without brood, the nurse bees 

 will be abundantly supplied with food for the larvae, and will 

 accept a batch of prepared cells very eagerly. 



When giving the cells, it is well to follow the practice of 

 some of the most extensive breeders and feed liberally at the 

 moment, to insure a larger portion of cells accepted. For this 

 purpose an ordinary garden sprinkler serves very well. Thin 



