20 (^UEEN-REARING IN ENGLAND. 



page 33) nine or ten days later, when the queen-cells are ripe 

 and ready for distribution. It is useless to place brood in 

 the super and to try to rear queens there unless the bees are 

 already working in the super, for, if they are not strong 

 enough to do this, much young brood will be destroyed, and 

 few or no queens will be produced. 



The bees in the queen-rearing compartment of a hive con- 

 taining a fertile queen will sometimes destroy or neglect many 

 of the larvae when given to them in the cups, although they 

 will accept them readily and attend to them well after they 

 have been started. In such cases the lar\ae in the cups must 

 first l>e given to bees that are in a better condition for accept- 

 ing them, and then when started by these bees they can be 

 given to the queen-rearing colony. 



Methods of Starting the Queen-Cells. — The best 

 methods of getting the larvae in the cups accepted may be 

 enumerated as follows : — 



(i) Bv placing them in a colony that is superseding its 

 failing queen, 



(2) By giving them to a colony that has been deprived 

 of its fertile queen and most of its brood in one operation from 

 three to twenty-four hours previously, as explained on page 10. 



(3) By giving tJieni to strong nuclei from which the fer- 

 tile queen has been removed one, two, or three days previ- 

 ously This, although in average cases less effective than 

 method No. 2, has been my fa\ouTite method, because in my 

 system of testing queens I have usually had many such 

 nuclei. 



(4) B\ giving them to bees that have been deprived of 

 their fertile queen and all their brood in one operation, and 

 have then been confined in a box for four or five hours. 

 Prepare a box (Fig. 17), made to take three combs, cover- 

 ing it with wire-cloth on the underside so as to provide plenty 

 of ventilation, yet not much light, and fitting it with a 

 removable lid b containing a slot large enough for the inser- 

 tion of two carriers and capable of being closed with the 

 strip d. 



Go to a strong colony about noon, when the bees are 

 flying frei'lv, and after having found the comb carrying the 

 queen and laid it on one side, shake the bees off four or five 

 of the brood combs into the box. Immediately after this 



