OR, MANUAI< OF THB APIARY. 277 



with many youngf bees and much hatching- brood, g-ave him 

 good cells rightly spaced. Others have used drone comb cut 

 in the same way, and in each alternate cell have inserted a 

 little royal jelly from a queen-cell about ready to be capped, 

 and then added a worker-larva. This accomplishes the same 

 purpose, and mutilates no worker-comb. 



Mr. Doolittle, who has given much time to research in this 

 line, first used the partially built queen-cells always to be 

 found in every hive. These could be fixed to comb or cross- 

 bars at pleasure, and by placing in each a particle of royal 

 jelly and a newly-hatched larva, he secured good queen-cells. 

 If these were in a queenless colony with abundant young bees, 

 the best of queens were reared. Mr. Doolittle found, what I 

 am sure is true, that the best queens, bred naturally, were 

 those reared before the natural swarm issued, or were always 

 started as queens very early, if not from the egg itself, were 

 reared with plenty of nurse or young bees in the hive, and in 

 times, usually, of rapid gathering of honey. Mr. Doolittle 

 found that he could not always get his queen-cups or incipient 

 queen-cells when needed, and soon invented the valuable 



Fig. 129. 



Form for making Cups, — From A. I. Root Co, 



method of dipping and producing artificial cups at pleasure. 

 He describes the whole method of discovery in his valuable 

 and very interesting book. The mould, or dipping-stick (Fig. 

 129), is like a rake-tooth with one end fashioned so as just to 

 fit into a good, normal queen-cell. This is immersed first in 

 water, then for nine-sixteenths of an inch into melted wax 

 which is kept melted by use of a lamp. It is inserted seven or 

 eight times alternately in the water and in the wax, but for a 

 less and less distance each time in the latter. This makes the 

 cup heavy and thick at the bottom and thin at the top. A 

 twirling motion, when held at various angles, makes the walls 



