ADVANCED BEE CULTURE. 83 



that portion shut off from the queen will proceed to construct cells 

 and rear queens. The only objection to placing- the cell-cups there 

 when first supplied with larvae is that the bees might be too slow in 

 accepting these cells and feeding the larvae, and the result would be 

 inferior queens. After the work is once started by queenless bees, 

 as just explained, then these other bees will at once carry on and 

 complete the work. After the just-started cells have been removed 

 from the hive of queenless bees and gives to another colony, the 

 hive of queenless bees may be set back upon the colony 

 from which it was taken, the queen excluder left between it and the 

 lower story, when it will be ready for starting a new batch of cells 

 by simply setting it upon a new stand several hours before the pre- 

 pared cups are given to it. In ten or twelve days all of the brood 

 will have hatched in this set of combs, and another set must be 

 started in time to be ready to take its place. 



As the time approaches for the hatching of the queens, the cells 

 must be removed from the bees, or protected in some manner, other- 

 wise, the first queen that hatches will, with the assistance of the 

 bees, tear down the other cells and destroy their occupants. Years 

 ago, many queen breeders used what was called a lamp-nursery, 

 that is, a hive, or box, with double walls of tin, the space between the 

 walls being filled with water which was kept between 90 and 100 de- 

 grees by means of a lamp. The use of this device has been aban- 

 doned for the simpler and more reliable plan of leavingthe cells with 

 the bees, but protecting each cell by means of some mechanical 

 device. 



Mr. Arthur Stanley of Dixon, Illinois, attaches the cell-cups to 

 the round, card-board gun-wads, one cup to each wad, then attaches 

 the wads to a stick in something the same way as Mr. Pridgen at- 

 taches his cups to a stick, then, when the cells are nearly ready to 

 hatch, he detaches the wads from the stick, and puts each cell into a 

 small cylinder made of queen excluding metal. These filled cylin- 

 ders are placed in rows, between two sticks (slipped in through holes 

 made in the upper slat) and left in charge of the bees. The bees 

 have access at all times to the cells, and to the queens when they 

 hatch, but the size of the latter prevents their passing out through 

 the openings. 



Mr. Pridgen makes a nurserj' by taking a piece of board ^ of 

 an inch thick, two inches wide, and as long as a top-bar of a brood 

 frame, cutting out a long notch, from one edge, a little more than an 

 inch in depth, and nearly the whole length of the board, tacking 

 wire cloth on each side, and dividing off the space between the 

 wire cloth by means of tin divisions. These tin divisions are ^ of 



