138 PLEASUBABLE BEE-KEEPING. 



work on one of the centre combs. If a queen of 

 good quality she must not be sacrificed, but given 

 to another stock known to possess a poor queen. 

 When the bees in the queenless stock find out their 

 loss, they commence the formation of queen cells 

 around some of the cells containing worker eggs or 

 grubs that have just emerged from such eggs. 



To ensure the best results queen raisers prevent 

 queen cells being formed over grubs a few days old, 

 as queens so produced are not of the best quality. 

 Ten days after the removal of the queen the queen 

 cells will be sealed over and ready for removal to 

 other colonies from which we take the inferior queens. 

 The day before it is decided to remove the queen cells 

 all hives to which queen cells are to be given should 

 be deprived of their queens ; but in order to ensure 

 that no stocks are left queenless at the close of the 

 season, these queens, or the best of them, should be 

 placed in niiclei until the stocks from which they are 

 taken have fertile queens. There should be as many 

 queenless colonies as there are well-shaped queen cells 

 to spare. 



The day following each queen cell should be cut out 

 carefully with a little comb attached, and one placed 

 between the centre combs in each queenless hive. 

 The comb attached to the cell will prevent it falling 

 down, and a gentle pressure on the comb will fix it to 

 the bar. Lay the quilts lightly over the frames and 

 make no further examination until the sixteenth day 

 from the removal of the first queen. Then examine 

 all the queen cells, and if a well-shaped hole has been 

 made at the mouth of the cell the queen has hatched 



