130 BEGINNER'S BEE BOOK 



from the time the egg is laid, as described in 

 Chapter III, the queen completes her growth 

 in only sixteen days. On the eleventh day after 

 the young larvse are placed in the cells the 

 queens will be nearly ready to emerge and it 

 will be necessary to remove the ripe cells from 

 the finishing colony. If they are to be used to 

 requeen an apiary at once, the simplest way is 

 to place one in each colony to be requeened, 

 twelve hours after the old queens are removed. 

 If they are to be kept for a time, it will be neces- 

 sary to provide nuclei for the purpose of get- 

 ting them mated. Fig. 17 shows a very 

 satisfactory one for this purpose. An ordinary 

 hive has been divided into three separate com- 

 partments with the entrance to the middle one 

 at one end, and an opening at each side for the 

 outside ones. By this plan one hive serves for 

 three and the bees are not able to pass from 

 one apartment to another. In each, two frames 

 of brood and bees are placed, without queens, 



