236 THE BEE keeper's MANUAL. 



allow a commoa bee to pass through, but should be too 

 small to permit a queen to do the same. Any kind of per- 

 forated cover may be made to answer the same purpose as 

 the gauze wire. If a number of sealed queens are on hand, 

 and there is danger that some may hatch, and destroy the 

 others, before the Apiarian can make use of them in forming 

 artificial swarms, he may very carefully cut out the combs 

 containing them, and place them each in a separate cradle ! 

 The bees having access to them, will give them proper at- 

 tention, and as soon as they are hatched, will supply them 

 with food, and- thus they vifill always be on hand for use when 

 they are needed. This Nursery must of course, be estab- 

 lished in a hive which has no mature queen, or it will 

 quickly be transformed into a slaughter house by the bees. 

 I have not yet tested this plan so thoroughly as to be certain 

 that it will succeed ; and I know so well the immense dif- 

 ference between theoretical conjectures and practical results, 

 that I consider nothing in the bee line, or indeed in any other 

 line, as established, until it has been submitted to the most rig- 

 orous demonstrations, and has triumphantly passed from the 

 mere regions of the brain to those of actual fact. A theory 

 on any subject may seem so plausible as almost to amount 

 to a positive demonstration, and yet when put to the working 

 test, it is often found to be encumbered by some unforeseen 

 difficulty, which speedily convinces even its sanguine pro- 

 jector, that it has no practical value. Nine things out of ten 

 may work to a charm, and yet the tenth may be so connected 

 with the other nine, that its failure renders their success 

 of no account. When I first used this Nursery, I did not 

 give the bees access to it, and I found that the queens 

 were not properly developed, and died in their cells. Per- 

 haps they did not receive sufficient warmth, or were not 

 treated in some other important respects, as they would 



