330 A Modern Bee-Farm 
After these confined bees have been in an uproar for a 
short time, having already made provision for a small 
opening, allow the young queen to run in. Keep these 
in a dark room and presently use as ordinary nuclei. 
This one-frame nucleus, as recommended in former issues 
of this work, is better than using twin frames or sections as 
“baby nuclei.” . 
It has been observed that a young queen feeds upon 
pollen extensively until she has met the drone, froth 
which time she is fed by the bees entirely upon digested 
food. 
The confined one-frame nucleus certainly takes up more 
space than the candy cages, but this’ is amply paid for by 
getting more substantial stock, while queens being able to 
feed naturally will get mated sooner than those with a 
weakened conétitutton. 
The Age of Virgin Queens 
as regards natural feeding and ultimate fertilization, is 
practically determined as from the date they are liberated. 
Let there be no mistake about this, for indeed a queen 
hatched at a later date than one confined for a long period 
in a nursery, and given full liberty from the hour she 
hatches, will as a rule be the first to secure fertilization, 
and who shall say that the latter will not prove the better 
queen, as she has already shown herself to be the 
stronger. 
Nevertheless surplus virgin queens of necessity confined 
for the first few days upon natural stores, especially pollen, 
do not suffer loss of vitality as in candy cages. This will 
be readily understood, when I show that naturally fed 
queens which may not be used through oversight or other 
cause in my own apiary, have been known to fly off 
immediately they were liberated from the cage, after being 
