^ IX.] ITALIANISING. 253 



however, informs us of the following method, devised by 

 Dathe and others, by which even this objection may be 

 avoided : — 



" When the young queen has left the cell, she is trans- 

 ferred after forty-eight hours, or even earlier, into a cellar 

 or some other dark and cool place. If the drones, by 

 one of which the impregnation is to be accomplished, are 

 not among the colony of the queen, they also must of 

 course be inserted. We now wait . for a sunny day free 

 from wind, when the thermometer in the shade is at least 

 17" above zero [70° Fahr.] ; the''bees in question, towards 

 five in the afternoon, when drones have completely ceased 

 from flight, are fetched out of their prison, and set up in 

 any spot, if possible where isolated and with the flight- 

 hole exposed to the sun ; then, by means of a small 

 syringe or in any other way, direct some liquid honey 

 into the flight-hole. In a minute or two the bees will 

 sport in numbers in the front, and2it will not be long 

 before the queen and drones also fly out. At evening 

 the colony is brought back into custody, and the man- 

 oeuvre is repeated till the young queen has commenced 

 laying, or till her accomplished fructification is made sure 

 by expansion of the abdomen, or, upon return from a 

 flight, by having the more or less torn-off drone penis 

 upon her extremity." Some essential particulars are not 

 here specified, but we interpret the instructions to refer 

 to a nucleus hive in which the queen is hatched with 

 several workers, "but with no drones present except those 



