1 66 A Modem Bee-Farm 



A fertile queen is rarely objected to where queen cells are 

 already capped over, and one may bq run in at any time of 

 the day. 



Any such colony will also accept a virgin queen right 

 away, and if broken up into nuclei the respective divisions will 

 accept one or more unfertilised queens. 



Upon the removal of a virgin queen, a fertile one will 

 almost certainly be accepted if inserted at once ; or any other 

 virgin queen will be treated equally as well. 



A colony deprived of the queen and the whole of its brood 

 will accept either a virgin or fertile queen as soon as they are 

 in an uproar because of such loss. The absence of the queen 

 is detected almost immediately wheii the brood also is removed. 

 Many bees are lost if bees are allowed to remain thus deprived 

 for any length of time. My first Holy Land queen was 

 introduced in this way fifteen years since, and though there is 

 some trouble in removing the brood, I have always found the 

 plan reliable, and the bees humming merrily, in possession of 

 a new queen, within an hour of the removal of their own queen 

 and brood. 



The Loss of Valuable Queens 



has frequently been deplored, and yet the persons attempting 

 the introduction went at it in a most clumsy way, especially 

 when we consider that better and more certain methods were 

 known to them. Valuable or other queens need not be lost if 

 only the most simple precautions are taken. For instance, 

 absolute safety can be ensured by removing a frame of 

 hatching brood from a hive, and after shaking off all the 

 adult bees, this brood comb placed in a narrow nucleus box 

 will soon produce many hundreds of young bees, who of a 

 necessity will do homage to the only queen they know. The 

 box can be stood in a hot-house for a few days, or hot water 

 bottles can be kept going on either side, and within a week 

 another hke comb can be added and full liberty given by 

 placing the nucleus in the permanent hive. Food should be 



