82 ADVANCED BEE CULTURE. 



to end, then dipped into water to harden the wax sufficiently so that 

 the wax will not twist when the sticks are removed. Each stick is 

 removed separately by turning it back and forth while it is being 

 slightly withdrawn. 



Right here let me say that much of the material in this chapter 

 is taken from articles furnished the Bee-Keepers' Revitw by Mr. 

 W. H. Pridgen, of Creek, North Carolina, and his plan of furnishing 

 these cell-cups with young larvae is that of transferring the lining 

 to the bottom of a cell, with the larva lying undisturbed upon the 

 lining. Somebody has called it "taking up the baby, cradle and all." 

 To make a success of this, the comb must be old enough so that the 

 outside of the cocoon is black and glossy. By shaving down the cells 

 with a keen edged knife, slightly heated, until the walls of the cells 

 are only about }i of an inch in depth, it is an easy matter to remove a 

 cocoon with the accompanying larva. In fact, by bending the piece 

 of comb back and forth the cocoons can often be forced to drop out 

 of their own accord. To take up these tiny larvae, and transfer 

 them to the cups, nothing is better than one of the dipping sticks 

 already described. By making a little funnel shaped cavity in the 

 opposite end from that used in dipping the cells, the larva and 

 cocoon can be lifted by pressing this cavity down over them, much 

 as a gun cap is pressed down over the tube. After placing the end 

 of the stick in one of the cups, a slight pressure and a little twist, 

 leaves the cocoon snugly ensconced in the bottom of the cell-cup. 



There will be better success in having the cups accepted, and 

 better results will be secured, if they first be given to bees deprived 

 of both queen and unsealed brood from six to twelve hours previously. 

 Nursing then begins the moment that cells are given. There are 

 several methods of securing such conditions, but one excellent plan 

 is to till a hive with combs of brood, and set it over another colony, 

 putting a queen excluder between the two stories. After the brood 

 is all sealed in the upper story, it is placed upon a new stand, the 

 queen cells cut out (if any there are), and one or two combs re- 

 moved to make room for the frame in which is fastened the row, or 

 rows, of prepared cells. After the bees have been left queenless for 

 a few hours, they are ready to accept the cell-cups instantly. If al- 

 lowed to do so, these bees would, of course, go on and complete the 

 cells, but, after the work is nicely started, it has been found that 

 they and the adhering bees may be placed in the upper story of an 

 ordinary colony, when the bees will go on and complete them, pro- 

 I'idcd, the (jueen is kept in the lower story by means of a queen-ex- 

 cluder. It is a singular fact that if one portion of the brood nest of 

 a colony of bees is partitioned off with a queen excluder, the bees in 



