THE BEGINNER IN BEE CULTURE. 13 



The Brood of a Good Queen. 



During normal times a good queen will always be prepared to make the 

 best use of vacant cells in the brood nest and also for expansion of thq brood 

 when desired by the colony. The eggs are laid in a very methodical manner 

 (this being specially noticeable when the queen. lays in a irmh cordb) and 

 the sealed brood will be nicely packed. The beginner is advised to take 

 note of the brood of a progressive colony, a good knowledge being thus gained 

 as to what may be expected from the averas;e queen. 



There are times when a queen should be " given a chance.'' For instance, 

 a young queen lately arrived by post may at first lay two or three eggs in 

 some of the cells ; but she will usually lay in a regular manner after a week 

 or so. Other queens will sometimes lay slightly irregularly for a time. Should 

 th6 practice become a habit — two or three eggs being laid in a cell and often 

 some adhering to the side of it — then the queen should be destroyed. 

 Always examine the queen in the first instance and note if she is injured in 

 any way, as this will be Jikely to cause permanent trouble. 



'Space for Brood Combs. 



It is always advisable to have correct bee space in the frames in the brood 

 nest. There may be times when some advantage is gained by allowing extra 

 space in the frames in the supers used for storing honey to be extracted, but 

 in all cases the brood frames should be neatly fitted to the measure the 

 self-spacing frames will -allow. The depth of the brood is practically always 

 the same, and it is therefore a waste of room to have extra space ; beside 

 this, the correct space allows more convenience for the bees in their work of 

 attending to the larvae and keeping up the necessary temperature in the 

 brood nest. 



Putting in Extra Frames. 



When a frame containing brood is removed from a populous colony, a 

 frame containing foundation (full sheet preferred) can be put in the place 

 from which the brood was removed. When putting in extra frames to 

 provide for increase in population, &c., the foundation should be put at the 

 side of the brood nest. 



If the combs from the side of the brood nest are extracted during a honey 

 flow, care should be taken to have them correctly replaced, for these combs 

 usually contain a fair portion of the important and convenient pollen supply 

 of the colony. 



POINTS IN OPERATING. 



How to raise good Queen Cells. 



The conditions best suited for the raising of good cells are those obtaiiiiiii,' 

 during wairm weather when sufiicient nectar and pollen is being gathered 

 to favour brood raising and to make the colonies progressive. With th^se 

 conditions the young "nurse bees" will be stimulated to supply ample food 

 (royal jelly) to the royal larvae. For honey production, easy manipulation, 

 and immunity from certain diseases, the Italian bees are in favour ; and wlien 

 preparation is being made to raise cells, the larvae or eggs should always be 

 selected from the most progressive Italian stock. 



Whether a colony is in a condition favourable for starting a number 

 of queen cells may usually be determined by logical reasoning. For instance, 

 a colony made queenless and with all its combs containing eggs and unsealed 

 larvae removed, would after a few hours readily accept a batch of grafted 



