CHAPTER XII, 



REARING AND INTRODUCING QUEENS. 



IN commencing to rear queens, you will first 

 want some small rearing boxes, or miniature 

 hives, about four and one-half inches wide, by 

 eight inches long, and five inches deep, inside 

 measurement. Use inch board for the hives. Make 

 for each hive three movable comb frames,* suspend- 

 ed the same as in the brood section of the Controlla- 

 ble Hive. Make the under side of the top bar flat, 

 instead of triangular, as in the large comb frames. 

 Take a piece of old comb, and cut to fill each one 

 of the small frames. Take from a pint to a quart 

 of bees in a populous stock (in the height of the 

 breeding season this will do harm) without the 

 queen. Confine the bees in a light box, in the top 

 of which there is an inch hole, closed to confine 

 them to the box, for if not confined they would re- 

 turn to the old stock, as the queen is not with them. 

 Having secured your bees in the box, go to a stock, 

 and lift out a comb containing eggs, just deposited. 

 They may be known by their appearance. They 

 are but a tiny speck at the bottom of the cell, about 

 one-sixteenth of an inch in length, slightly curved, 



*TMs frame ib Bhown in the engraving, representing the diflferent 

 kinds of cells, in Chapter I. 



