THE ITALIAN OR LIGURIAN BEE. 37 
a single queen, which, with a few worker attend- 
ants, can readily be obtained throughout the summer 
months. He has then to pursue the ordinary pro- 
cess of supplying a new queen, or he may carry out 
the somewhat more elaborate directions given by 
Mrs. Tupper in the prize essay above referred to, 
and which we may not unacceptably here reprint, pre- 
mising that for English practice the dates must be 
altered to at least a month earlier :— 
“The queen with which you commence should be 
pure beyond doubt. Purchase of some one who will 
warrant her, and whose guarantee you can trust— 
remembering that in the beginning you will be no 
judge of her purity. The fall is the best time to 
purchase your queen, because she will then be ready 
for early operations the next season. Introduce her 
into the best and strongest colony you have, for safe- 
keeping through the winter. If you have but a few 
colonies, the work for the next spring is very simple. 
About the middle of May, if you examine the hive 
containing your Italian queen, you will find drones 
in all stages. Then take the queen out, and confine 
her in a cage, made by rolling a piece of wire cloth 
four inches square, into a tube, tying it firmly, and 
putting a wooden stopper in each end.* Next remove 
from another hive its queen, and having killed her,t 
insert the queen-cage between the two frames, and 
keep her there forty-eight hours. Then release her, 
and that hive has an Italian queen. The one from 
* Queen cages can be bought if preferred ; two forms of them are 
described further on. 
+ Don’t do this for a day or two—you may have to replace her if the 
new queen comes to grief. 
