78 PRACTICAL QUEEN REARING 



mated. In general, it is better to place the cell at once in 

 the nucleus. 



Great care must always be used in handling sealed queen 

 cells. Any slight jar is likely to dislodge the nymph from its bed 

 of royal jelly and injure it seriously. The bees which may cluster 

 about the cells may be driven off by smoking them or by care- 

 fully brushing them away. The longer the cells are left undis- 

 turbed, the less the danger of injury to the young queens. The 

 bees should never be shaken from a frame containing queen 

 cells. 



It is necessary to separate cells built by the Alley plan by 

 cutting with a sharp knife. The knife should be kept warm 

 to get best results. Otherwise, instead of cutting freely it may 

 simply crush the wax and injure a cell. Figure 21 shows how 

 the cells may be cut apart. 



It is important, also, to keep the cells right side up at all 

 times. Some breeders use a cell block such as may be seen at 

 Figure 22. This enables the breeder to carry a whole batch 

 to the apiary to be placed, one at a time, in the nuclei, without 

 danger of injuring them. 



It often happens that a batch of cells will be ripe and the 

 nuclei not yet ready to receive them for one reason or another. 

 In that case, candy should be placed in the nursery cages, and 

 the cells placed in them on the ninth or tenth day after the cells 

 are given to the bees. It should be remembered that the queens 

 will emerge on the fifteenth or sixteenth day after the eggs were 

 laid. Should a virgin queen emerge before the cells are removed 

 and cared for, she is likely to destroy at once all that remain. 

 Thus all the beekeeper's labor is for naught. 



It is necessary to exercise some care in extremely hot weath- 

 er to avoid overheating the cells when carrying them about in 

 the hot sun. Well known queen breeders admit having lost 

 valuable cells on more than one occasion by overheating through 

 exposure to direct sunshine on a hot day. 



In placing the cells in the nuclei the cell should be gently 

 pushed into the side of a comb just above the brood, if there is 

 brood. However, it often happens that no brood is present 



