QUEEN-REARING IN ENGLAND. 



by others containing honey.* Leave a space between 

 the two combs of brood for the carrier. About five hours 

 later the colony is ready to receive the larvae in the cups. 

 If there is no honey flow, it is necessary, for success, that 

 the colony be fed every day. commencing two days before 

 the rearing starts. I find zjb. of thin sugar syrup' (8 pints 

 water to lolb. sugar), given every e\ening, to be sufficient. 



Traosf erring: the Larvae- — To get the larvae, we go 

 to the hi\e containing the queen from which we wish to 

 breed, and looking o\-er the brood combs, we select one that 

 is seen to contain a considerable number of small larvae of 

 about the right size (see below), preferably one that has not 



become dark with re- 

 peated use. After ha\- 

 ing carefully looked 

 for the queen on this 

 comb — if she is there 

 we lift her off into 

 the hive — we gi\-e the 

 comb a gentle shake 

 in front of the hive 

 so as to detach the 

 loosely clinging liet-s, 

 letting them run into 

 the hive, and the rest 

 of the bees we brush 

 off with a twig of 

 spruce. 



The comb is now 



brought indoors, or 



if the air is still and 



the temperature is 



done out-of-doors. The 



facing a strong light, 



Fig. 9. 

 Quill for transferring larvse. 



over 65 degrees the work is 



comb is placed on a table 



and is leaned against a support so as to incline it at such 



an angle that the light reaches the bottoms of the cells. For 



transferring the larvae from their cups, a slender quill is 



used ; one of the stouter wing quills from a domestic fowd 



• It is a good plan to place the surplus combs of brood in a queen- 

 excluded super over a colony in preparation for the formation of the 

 nuclei. (See page 33). 



