QUEEN-REARING IN ENGLAND. 



27 



the larvae were transferred to the cups, care 

 being taken not to chill or severely jar them. 

 Five days later, viz., on the ninth day after 

 the larvae were transferred, the cells are dis- 

 tributed to the nuclei, unless virgin queens are 

 wanted. In this case, the little compartments 

 are provisioned with candy, a little ball of soft 

 candy being dropped into the hole at the 

 bottom of each compartment and pressed out 

 flat with the end of a pencil. Of course, the 

 cell has to be temporarily removed to permit of 

 this being done. It is unwise to provision the 

 nursery much before the ninth day, because 

 then the candy is apt to dry up before the 

 queens emerge. The nursery is examined again 

 on the evening of the tenth day after the 

 larvae were transferred, and if any queens have 

 emerged their cells are turned upside down 

 (see Fig. 20). The same thing is done on the 

 morning of the eleventh day, and if all the queens 

 have not hatched by then, it is done again on 

 the evening of the eleventh day. This 

 the cells within about twelve hours of 

 of the queen is rather important, for, if 

 it is not done a considerable percentage of the queens are 

 likely to die as the result of their creeping again into their 

 cells and being unable to back out. Often, too, they get their 

 antennae stuck in the viscid jelly in the base of the cell, and 

 sometimes a queen will jam herself between the cell and the 

 wall of the cage. Queens are liable to die if allowed to 

 remain long in the cages, so they should be removed as soon 

 as they are ready. In warm weather a queen is fit to travel 

 twenty-four hours, and in cool weather forty-eight hours after 

 she has hatched. The best age for introducing a queen to 

 a nucleus specially formed to receive her is from one and a 

 half to three days after hatching. It is sometimes a good 

 plan to put a worker or two with the queen as soon as it is 

 seen that she has hatched, but it is a curious fact that these 

 workers very often die, though the queen remains alive. 



One of the chief advantages of the cages above described 

 is that they permit of the incubating of a large number of 



Fig. ZL. 

 Size and sliape 

 of partition in 

 Sladen's Mul- 

 tiple Cage, 

 8 b. o w i D g 



notches. 



reversing of 

 the hatching 



