144 ^ Modern Bee-Farm 



' inducing the bees to start queen cells where desired by, en- 

 larging the mouth of worker cells, is really more simple than 

 practical. In the first place, one cell only is never large 

 enough to form the base of a queen cell ; two at least are 

 thrown into one, but more often three ; and where the bees 

 have unlimited material at hand a queen cell will not be built 

 upon one in fifty of such enlarged cells. I have had the proof 

 of this assertion in my own apiary, and where Ligurians are 

 concerned very often only two or three cells are started. 

 One of 



My own Plans 



is to remove the queen and all the brood combs with adhering 

 bees from a crowded hive, and place them in a new situation, 

 with the exception of those shaken from two combs, into the 

 old hive, when with the flying bees a fair swarm will be 

 obtained. Next, go to the hive containing the queen you 

 desire to breed from and look up the comb of eggs, or such 

 just hatching by preference, and in a warm room cut the comb 

 asunder from end to end, horizontally at about one-third of its 

 depth from the top bar. Now along each side of the lower edge 

 of the septum niake vertical incisions with the point of a pen- 

 knife, cutting away the cell walls in the shape of the letter V 

 inverted. Do not cut so close to the base as to displace the 

 eggs, and let the incisions be made about' J-inch apart. Our 

 cells will generally be built from these hollow spaces, and 

 though not perfectly regular it is seldom that any two are 

 joined iogether. 



The reader may be tempted to put the whole comb in just 

 as he takes it from the hive, or simply as sliced asunder, but 

 only to find that he will not get one cell in five, and those not 

 so regular as with the V-cuts. The remainder of the comb 

 may be cut into strips and fastened into other frames in like 

 manner, but unless the bees are very numerous it is not 

 desirable to put more than one prepared comb into one hive 

 at a time. I have used frames with parallel bars and strips 



