§ viii.j INTRODUCING NEW QUEENS. 247 



the same way. Queen-rearing operations must be con- 

 fined to warm weather and when drones are abundant. 



Royal cells are often built so close together that it is 

 difficult to remove one without injuring another. As a 

 remedy for this Dr. Dzierzon has made the important 

 discovery that any convenient worker cell may be made 

 to produce a queer; by the removal to it of some of the 

 royal jelly from an unsealed cell ; by placing this on the 

 inner margin of the cell selected, the bees will adopt and 

 rear the larva as desired. 



§ VIII. INTRODUCING NEW QUEENS. 



This is an operation that is continually being practised 

 for the purpose of Italianising a colony, though there are 

 other occasions for its adoption, as on the loss or the 

 superannuation of the old queen. We will in the first 

 place describe the mode of procedure with a frame hive. 



Should the old queen be remaining in the hive, she has 

 first to be removed. Having discovered her, by lifting 

 out and examining the frames (see page 271), place a 

 wineglass over her whilst on the comb, and, with a card 

 passed very carefully underneath, she may, with a few 

 of her subjects, be made a prisoner and easily removed. 

 She should be preserved in a small box till the success 

 of the new introduction is ascertained. Then, having 

 enclosed the new queen, with such of her retinue if any 

 as are with her, in the domed wire cage described at 

 page 199, place this cage upon the comb in a spot where 



