THOUSAND ANSWERS 189 



try again. At any rate, it is worth your while to try it, keeping 

 in mind to have your upper story high up. 



Q. I am thinking of re-queening by allowing a queen to be 

 reared above the excluder and then allow her to come back and 

 enter the hive below after she is fertilized. Will she kill the old 

 queen, or be killed? If you think this is not a good plan, what 

 would you advise? 



A. If you should succeed in getting a queen reared and she 

 should return from her wedding trip, it is uncertain which queen 

 would be killed. 



Q. This year we had only one colony out of nine that stored 

 any surplus honey; they were Italians in an 8-frame hive. Next 

 year we would like to make some increase from this colony, as 

 we have plenty of extra combs and hives. 



About swarming time, if I remove the queen from this colony, 

 in a few days there will likely be a good many queen-cells started. 

 Now, if there happens to be cells on each frame, could I make 

 eight nuclei from it by taking one frame of bees and then take a 

 frame of hatching-brood and bees from some other hive, and per- 

 haps a frame of honey, and fill up the hive with drawn combs? 



Q. Yes, your scheme will work. If the cells should happen 

 to be all on one or two combs, you can cut out a cell and fasten 

 it on another comb by pinning over it a hive-staple. When you 

 take the extra frame of brood and bees from some other colony, 

 shake into your nucleus the bees from one or two more of the 

 frames, since a good many will return to their old home. Or, to 

 prevent returning, you may fasten the bees in the nucleus for two 

 or three days. 



Q. How may I rear choice queens on a small scale? 



A. I will give one plan that should give you the best of queens. 

 Of course, if you rear choice queens you must have a choice queen 

 from which to rear them. The colony containing this queen 

 should be built up strong, if necessary, by the addition of brood 

 and bees from other colonies, so that it shall be the first to swarm. 

 About eight days after it swarms there should be a fine lot of 

 queen-cells that you can utilize to the best advantage. The more 

 nearly mature they are the better, but if left too late there is 

 danger that some of them may be torn down by the bees. If you 

 are willing to take the trouble, there is a plan by which you may 

 have them fully mature. When the colony swarms, hive the 

 swarm on a new stand, leaving the mother colony comparatively 

 strong. You might even return some of the bees of the swarm to 

 the old hive. Beginning about a week after the issuing of the 



