276 COMMERCIAL QUEEN REARING. 



There is one trait in the character of bees which is worthy 

 of profound respect. Such is their indomitable energy and 

 perseverance, that under circumstances apparently hopeless, 

 they labor to the utmost to retrieve their losses, and sustain 

 the sinking State. So long as they have a queen, or any 

 prospect of raising one, they struggle vigorously against im- 

 pending ruin, and never give up until their condition is abso- 

 lutely desperate. We once knew a colony of bees not large 

 enough to cover a piece of comb four inches square, to attempt 

 to raise a queen. For two whole weeks, they adhered to their 

 forlorn hope; until at last, when they had dwindled to less 

 than one-half their original number, their new queen emerged, 

 but with wings so imperfect that she could not fly. Crippled 

 as she was, they treated her with almost as much respect as 

 though she were fertile. In the course of a week more, scarce 

 a dozen workers remained in the hive, and a few days later, 

 the queen was gone, and only a few disconsolate wretches were 

 left on the comb. 



COMMERCIAL QUEEN EEAEING. 



THE ALLEY METHOD. 



538. Mr. Alley, who raised queens by the thousand, has 

 published his method of queen-rearing. His queens are all 

 raised in very small nuclei which he calls miniature hives. 

 From a light-colored worker-comb filled with hatching eggs, 

 he cuts strips with a sharp knife, as in fig. 107. 



MSMjImiJiM. 



Fig. 107. 



LGO IN EVEBY OTHEB CELL. 



(From Alley.) 



"After the comb has been cut up, lay the pieces flat upon a 

 board or table, and cut the cells on one side down to within 

 one-fourth of an inch of the foundation or septum, a? seen in 



