NUCLEUS HIVES. 147 
the piece of comb upon which they are affixed, 
sacrificing the adjoining cells in order to make sure of 
not touching the infant princesses. Each cell thus 
extracted must be provided with a new location by 
cutting a space for its reception in the assigned spot, 
and, if necessary, it must then be fixed by a little 
melted wax. But, as anything approaching to 
pressure is sufficient, in the earlier stages, to kill the 
insect within, it is not right to attempt this transfer 
till the top of the cell shows, by its brown colour, that 
it is within three or four days of hatching. There is 
no danger in leaving the whole in the original hive for 
from a week to ten days from the construction of the 
first cell; but ten is the extreme limit of safety. 
The most certain way of ensuring the preparation of 
royal cells is to remove the queen from the hive for a 
few hours; then, if two or three of the divided frames 
have been previously inserted in the centre, one or 
more of these will be sure to provide the apiculturist 
with the object of his desires. The transferring 
process can, of course, be equal’y well accomplished 
from other frames to the one desired; but there is also 
another resource which does not appear to have 
attracted much attention in this country at present. 
It has been ascertained by Dzierzon that, by removing 
from any unsealed royal cell a portion of the jelly, and 
placing this within any worker cell desired, the bees 
will be induced to adopt the occupant of the latter as a 
princess, and will construct the cell and rear the larva 
accordingly. This plan is especially convenient when 
two or more royal cells are placed awkwardly close 
together. 
L 2 
