TIL— HOW TO SAVE QUEENS REARED UNDER 

 THE SWARMING IMPULSE : A METHOD 

 SUITABLE EOR ALL BEE-KEEPERS. 



Bee-keepers who require only a few fertile queens may 

 easily obtain them by saving the queens that are reared 

 naturally under the swarming impulse in their best colonies 

 in the following manner : — 



About a week after the iirst swarm has left the hive 

 the colony is divided into nuclei, each containing one or 

 two of the queen-cells. The best time to do this is when 

 the oldest of the queens is almost ready to emerge. This 

 is generally on the sixth or seventh day after the colony 

 has swarmed, but, if the departure of the swarm has been 

 delayed by unfavourable weather, some of the queens may 

 emerge sooner, and then the operation should be done earlier. 

 The dividing of the colony should not be delayed beyond 

 the seventh day, for, if it is, one or more of the queens is 

 very likely to go off with a swarm, or to destroy her immature 

 sisters. On the other hand, if the operation is carried out 

 much before the sixth day, there is a large amount of brood 

 in the hive, and few bees yet hatched to care for it, so that 

 comparatively few nuclei can, with safety, be made. The 

 work should be carried out about s p.m., or, if the day is 

 warm and fine, at 6 p.m., so that no bees can return to the 

 parent hive the same day. 



Each nucleus should consist of three combs with the 

 adhering bees, placed in a separate hive and warmly wrapped 

 up, the flight hole being reduced to the size of 2in. by fin. 

 There should be brood and at least one well-formed queen- 

 cell in the central comb, and the other combs should contain 

 plenty of honey. The bees being strongly attracted by the 

 sealed brood and queen-cells, and a large number of them 

 being too young to have taken their first flight, only a few 

 of them will return to the parent hive the next day. There 

 being no eggs or young larvae in the combs, the brood is 

 not easily chilled. It is, however, important that there 

 should be sufficient bees to keep the queen-cells, and what 



