80 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN 



made to imitate the bases of natural Queen 

 Cells, fastened deftly upon a bar; Royal 

 Jelly is spooned up and added, and then 

 these bars of artificial cells are carried and 

 placed in hives whose Queens have been pur- 

 posely removed. Then our people, under 

 the impetus of an instinct to refurnish them- 

 selves with a Queen, build out these cells, 

 nurse each occupant, and finally shut the 

 door against all intrusion until nature shall 

 complete the work. When thus capped, my 

 Masters either take them all away, distribu- 

 ting them among little boxes containing only 

 a few hundreds of bees each, until we are 

 hatched out, have been married and are lay- 

 ing, or else they protect each cell with a 

 cunning guard of wire cloth, within which 

 we are all hatched, and then distributed 

 among baby-nuclei to be cared for until 

 mated and laying. When thus laying, we 

 are termed and sold as Untested Queens. 

 When kept for twenty-one or more days, 

 until our children show the requisite number 

 of orthodox yellow bands on their backs, we 



