QUEEN-REARING IN ENGLAND. 19 



which is placed between these combs and the wall (Fig. 16). 

 The queen-excluding partition is hung between these combs 

 and the rest of the combs in the hi\e. To make sure that the 

 queen is not in the queen-rearing compartment, either she 

 must be found, or each comb that is placed in the queen- 

 rearing compartment must previously have all the bees shaken 

 off it into the other part of the hive. The comb of brood 

 which is next the queen-excluder should be the one that con- 

 tains the most hatching brood. The cups are hung between 

 the two frames of brood. 



When rearing successive batches (which can be done every 

 four days by caging the sealed cells, or every three days if 

 the cells are started by other bees), in order to maintain a 

 sufficient amount of brood in the queen-rearing compartment, 

 it will be necessary, at intervals of about eight to ten days, to 

 place in it a comb containing brood from the compartment 

 containing the queen, or, if the colony requires strengthening, 

 from another hive. This comb of brood should be placed 

 at A, Fig. 16, between the queen-cells and the outside comb 

 of honey ; the previously-given comb of brood, which now 

 contains only old brood, is then placed at B, between the 

 queen-cells and the compartment containing the queen, and 

 the comb of brood that occupied this position takes the placft 

 (C) of the outside comb, which is removed. Thus each comb 

 of brood that is given occupies successively the positions A, 

 B, and C, and is then removed.* 



The colony should be fed every evening unless a decided 

 honey flow is in progress. 



Rearing queens in the super is advantageous in the case 

 of very strong colonies that are already working well in the 

 super. All the brood combs, except three or four, may be 

 placed in the super, and if there is a good honey-flow going 

 on their places may be occupied with frames of foundation. 

 This treatment is often effective in preventing swarming, 

 and the brood combs in the super, with the adhering bees, will 

 be in just the right condition for forming excellent nuclei (see 



* It is well to remember that it is possible for queens to be reared 

 from the larvee in the combs that are placed in the queen-rearing com- 



fartment, and that should any such queen hatch it will destroy the cells. 

 used to search regularly for queen-cells on these combs, but having 

 found only one in the course of many years, I have discontinued the 

 practice. 



C2 



