40 



The Stewart Method. 

 First prepare a good strong colony in the following manner : Find 

 the queen and put her above a queen-excluder with two frames of 

 young brood and stores, the remainder being empty combs, and the 

 rest of the brood-combs being left below in the original brood- 

 chamber. We will call this " hive A " for the purpose of reference. In 

 three days' time go to the colony with your best queen (hive B) and 

 insert in the centre of the brood-nest an empty comb. This is for 

 the purpose of securing young larva; the right age for queen-rearing. 

 Now wait for a further five days, and then go to A and remove the 

 top body-box with the queen to a fresh location, after which thoroughly 

 examine the lower portion and cut out all queen-cells that may be 

 started there. Remove a comb from the centre, which will be replaced 

 with the one inserted in hive B five days earlier, which is now removed 

 from the colony and treated as follows : Cut a strip from the bottom 

 of the comb through the eggs and larvae, then vertical strips three 

 parts of the way to the top bar. Do this as quickly as possible so as 

 to avoid chilling the brood, and then insert in the space provided in 

 hive B, which now contains an abundance of young bees for cell- 

 building, and in addition is queenless. When the cells, which will be 

 built round the edge of the prepared comb, come to maturity, in ten 



Fig- 33-— Illustr'iTing Method of cutting Comb. 



days' time, they can be disposed of in any manner the apiarist deems 

 advisable. Do not on any consideration feed sugar-syrup to colonies 

 building queen-cells, as too often these will hatch out inferior and of 

 poor constitution ; pure honey should always be used. During queen- 

 rearing operations always curtail the flight of black drones as much 

 as possible. 



Queen-nurseries. 

 The advantages and perhaps disadvantages attaching to queen- 

 nurseries may be discussed here in a few words. It is not certain that 

 a queen-cell given to a colony will hatch out in a perfect condition. 

 Her legs or other parts of her body may be imperfectly formed, or it 

 IS possible that her wings will be imperfectly developed. In this' latter 

 event she will always be unfertiHzed and worthless, and wiU waste the 

 time of the colony in which she has been introduced. Sometimes it 

 happens that the occupant of the cell is dead, and time is wasted in 

 waitmg for her to hatch out. This, of course, is avoided by having 

 queens hatch in a nursery. A number of queen-cells may be on hand 

 without any immediate use for them, and when put in a nursery they 

 will hatch out and can be stored there for some time. Large batches 

 of queens can be nursed under this system, and either introduced as 

 virgins direct to colonies or to nuclei for mating. 



