296 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



(lueen cells upon it. If yon will cut two ob- 

 long slots in the comb, many think you will 

 thus secure a great<^r number of cells ; but, 

 as this distigiu-es and mutilates the combs, 

 1 have not followed the plan much, since 

 using the nursery. The frame can be taken 

 out of the hive, and placed in the nursery, 

 as soon as the queen cells are capped over ; 

 hut, as much of the unsealed worker larvae 

 would not be capped over by this time, I 

 would prefer to wait until 8 or 9 days after 

 , tiie frame was first given them. All worker 

 brood will then be capped over, so that none 

 of it will starve and die, and the queen cells 

 will be so far advanced that but little dan- 

 ger need be feared from shaking the bees 

 off, or from handling them. After tiiking 

 their cells away, you can give them a second 

 lot of small larva? to start cells from, or you 

 can give them a young queen from the nur- 

 sery, as is most convenient. If you can so 

 manage as to give them a queen after rear- 

 ing a lot of queen cells, and thus alternating, 

 you will probably have less trouble in intro- 

 ducing. \ If you keep adding fresh combs or 

 cells to your nursery every day, you will 

 soon have queens hatching almost hourly, 

 and sometimes three or four will come out 

 of their cells almost simultaneously. By 

 holding the comb of cells up to your ear, you 

 can easily hear the queen biting her way 

 through the capping with her strong mandi- 

 bles. If the cells are built on new combs, or 

 fdn., you can see the motions of the queen, 

 by holding the comb up to the sun or a 

 strong lamp light, and these motions com- 

 mence from 10 to 24 hours before tiie queen 

 is ready to come forth. Taking advantage 

 of these facts, we will remove, in the eve- 

 ning, all queens that seem likely to hateli be- 

 fore morning. Where the cells are built on 

 new sheets of fdn., the queen, cell and all, 

 can be picked off the sheet, without even so 

 much as making a hole througli the comb, 

 and I have found this an excellent way of 

 introducing, to take the queen in the cell, as 

 soon as she begins to move about, and place 

 it in the hive or nucleus where wanted. 

 (Queens that are foxmd hatched and crawling 

 around in the nursery, in the morning, 

 should be taken, at once, to the (lueenless 

 hives or nuclei waiting for them. Be sure 

 that the hive is queenless, and then just set 

 them dowii in front of the entrance, and let 

 them ciawl in ; I have found this i)lan as 

 good as to open the hive. It seems almost 

 ridiculous, to think we can carry these vir- 

 gin ([ueens around and let them run into the 

 li Ives, and find them laying a week after- 



ward, without any farther trouble, but it is 

 something we have done a great many times. 

 To introduce them in this way to a hive tliat 

 has just had a laying queen taken from it, is 

 a little more uncertain, yet we have done it. 

 and there is one very decided advantage in 

 so doing ; becaiise the colony will then, at 

 no time, be out of unsealed brood. The sav- 

 ing in time by giving a colony a bright live 

 queen, instead of a queen cell which may 

 not hatch inside of 8 or 4 days (perhaps not 

 at all), is quite an item. The first queen 

 that hatches, one would suppose, would tear 

 down all the rest of the cells, as she does in 

 the hive ; but such is not the case, where 

 there are no worker bees present, as in the 

 lamp nursery. It is true, we occasionally 

 find a queen tearing open the other cells 

 when left too long, but not often. They do 

 sometimes, also, sting each other ; but, if 

 they are looked after the first thing in the 

 morning and the last thing at night, very 

 few will be lost from this cause. Some un- 

 sealed honey should be found in the cells, 

 for these queens are very fond of a good 

 "square meal,'' about as soon as they have 

 had time to stretch themselves. I have no- 

 ticed that they seem to have a preference for 

 newly gathered, thin honey, and as the hon- 

 ey in the open cells gets quite thick after be- 

 ing exposed to this high temperature, it has 

 lately occurred to me, that some diluted 

 honey, as soon as they are hatched, might be 

 better for them, 



IXTRODUCING VIRGIN QUEENS. 



Although these young queens, like newly 

 hatched chickens, or young puppies and kit- 

 tens, are disposed to take up with the first 

 animated object they set their eyes on, yet 

 there has been considerable trouble in intro- 

 ducing them. With weak stocks or nuclei, 

 that have been a day or two queenless, there 

 is little trouble, and, in fact, the bees of a 

 large colony will allow these young queens 

 to crawl in without a woi'd of objection at 

 the time, in the majority of cases, but when 

 she gets a day or two older, then comes the 

 difficulty. I have not been able to discover 

 how the trouble comes about, but so many 

 of them are found in front of the hive, either 

 dead or just able to crawl, that I have rath- 

 er given up introducing them to full stocks, 

 unless they have been some time queenless. 



The introducing part of the lamp nursery 

 plan of rearing queens is the one great ob- 

 stacle, and it is evident that there is some- 

 thing about it not fully mastered ; for, at 

 times, Ave succeed so nicely with every 

 queen, that it seems as if there were no need 



