COMMERCIAL METHODS 123 
danger of swarming or of an emerging queen destroying the 
others. 
Queens to be replaced should have been removed the day 
before so that the bees will have missed them and be ready 
to accept the cells. The cells should be cut from the comb, care 
being used not to cut too close and injure the young queen. They 
may be fastened to the side of'a brood frame with a toothpick or 
simply dropped between two frames above the center of the brood 
nest. 
If they are to be used for making increase, the colonies to be 
broken up into nuclei should be previously made ready. The 
advantage of using the ripe cells is that much less trouble is 
necessary than when mating the queens in baby nuclei and then 
later transferring them to the full colonies to be requeened. If 
used in nuclei for purposes of increase they emerge, and are 
mated from the hive in which they will remain, thus saving the 
trouble of introduction. It is much easier to get a cell accepted 
than a virgin queen or even a laying queen. 
Dr. Miller recommends the use of a colony that has started 
queen cells in preparation for swarming as cell builders when 
available, as conditions in such a colony will approximate the 
natural method of queen rearing. 
Commercial Methods.—In order to succeed commercially the 
queen breeder must be able to supply queens in considerable 
numbers with regularity throughout the season. If the honey 
flow is checked he must feed his colonies freely in order to con- 
tinue to supply his orders. While the foregoing plan is well 
suited to rearing a few dozen queens to supply tne needs of one’s 
own apiary, it would be entirely too slow for commercial pur- 
poses. Then the man who rears queens for sale must be pre- 
pared to get them mated safely, which requires additional equip- 
ment in the way of nuclei, ete. In making nuclei for mating 
purposes one can get a much larger number from breaking up a 
single colony of bees than would be possible where they were 
used for increase, each of which was expected to build up to a 
