286 THE bbe-kbbpsr's guide ; 



frames and empty cells in the nuclei, the bees may be kept 

 active ; yet with so few bees one can not expect very much 

 from the nuclei. After cutting' all the queen-cells from our 

 old hive, we can again insert eggs, as above suggested, and 

 obtain another lot of cells, or, if we have a sufficient number, 

 we can leave a single queen-cell, and this colony will soon be 

 the happy possessor of a queen, and just as flourishing as if 

 the even tenor of its ways had not been disturbed. If it is 

 preferred, the bees of this colony may be used iu forming the 

 nuclei, in which case there is no danger of g'etting: a queen in 

 any nucleus thus formed, or of having- the queen-cells destroyed. 

 We can thus start seven or eight nuclei very quickly. Mr. 

 Doolittle forms nuclei by disturbing the bees — jarring the 

 hive — till they fill with honey, then shakes them into a hive or 

 box and sets them in a dark room or cellar for twenty-four 

 hours. Then they will always, he says, accept a queen-cell or 

 a virgin queen of any age at once. A full colony may be 

 usually re-queened in the same way. 



QUEEN I,AMP-NURSERY. 



This aid to bee-keeping was first used by F. R. Shaw, of 

 Chatham, Ohio. The double wall enclosing water was the 

 invention of A. I. Root. It is substantially a tin hive, with 

 two walls enclosing a water-tight space an inch wide, which, 

 when in use, is filled with water through a hole at the top. 

 Each nursery may hold from six to eight frames. Some pre- 

 fer to have special frames for this nursery, each of which 

 contains several close chambers. The queen-cells are cut out 

 and put in these chambers. 



By use of a common kerosene lamp placed under this nur- 

 sery, the temperature must be kept from 80 degrees F. to 100 

 degfees F. By placing the frames with capped queen-cells in 

 this, the queens develop as well as if in a hive or nucleus. If 

 the young queens, just from the cell, are introduced into a 

 queenless colony or nucleus, as first shown by Mr. Langstroth, 

 they are usually well received. Unless one is rearing a great 

 many queens, this lamp-nursery is not desirable, as we still 

 have to use the nucleus to get the young queens fecundated, 

 have to watch carefully to get the young queens as soon as 



