ROFAL BROOD. 177 



have to be cut out and place loosely in the new hive, a 

 triangular piece of comb should then be removed with 

 them, to be used as a block in preventing any pressure 

 coming on them. A space must be cut out of the middle 

 in the centre combs of the hive into which they are to 

 be introduced. Special care must be taken not to bruise 

 the royal embryos, as they are particularly sensitive to 

 pressure. It is sometimes best to introduce royal brood 

 into queenless hives in preference to matured tinimpreg- 

 Tiated queens, because, as mentioned at page 8, bees 

 are reluctant to receive virgin queens, whilst they will 

 tolerate one hatched in the hive, who will speedily 

 depart to seek a drone. Bee-masters mostly use small 

 hives for queen-rearing, consisting of, say, four combs. 

 By extracting from a populous hive four such frames of 

 combs (with the bees on them), and having eggs in the 

 first stage (see page 9), or better still a royal embryo, 

 the bees will rear a queen or queens therefrom. Care 

 will have to be exercised to ensure that there is a suffi- 

 •cient number of bees to mature the brood brought from 

 the hive.* 



A colony of this character is technically called a 

 ■"nucleus." 



Such operations as queen-rearing should only be 



* These weak little colonies should have small entrances, so as 

 to be better able to defend themselves from the attacks of robber- 

 bees, and they will require to be assisted and strengthened by 

 feeding. 



