248 FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 



I/4x/4xJ4, a piece of tin and a piece of section stufiF each 

 134 inches square form the material for the plug. Lay 

 the two blocks parallel on their sides, with 34 i^^ch space 

 between them. On these nail the piece of tin, turn over, 

 and nail on the section stuff. Near one end drive a tack 

 partly in to prevent the plug going too far into the cage. 

 That makes all complete. 



DISTRIBUTING QUEEN-CELLS. 



When the queen-cells are to be distributed on Satur- 

 day, the first thing is to provision a number of queen- 

 cages with the usual queen-candy, tacking a piece of 

 pasteboard on the end of the plug. Then we go to the 

 nucleus where the cells are stored, cut out the cells, re- 

 jecting any that do not appear satisfactory, and put the 

 cells in the cages. Some cells, however, are left uncaged. 

 When we come to a nucleus that has had no queen for a 

 day or more, there is no need of caging the cell. It is 

 put against the comb in a good place, and fastened there 

 with a hive-staple (Fig. 85). Coming to a nucleus with 

 a queen which we wish to remove, we put the queen in 

 a cage, and give the nucleus a caged cell, laying the cage 

 against the comb and nailing it there with a 1^4 or i^ 

 wire nail (Fig. 93). This nail is slender so as to push 

 easily through the meshes of the wire-cloth. Then the 

 young queens that we have removed are used wherever 

 needed. 



BRUSHING BEES OFF QUEEN-CELLS. 



Before cutting cells from the comb the bees must be 

 removed, and it would mean the ruin of the cells to shake 

 the bees off. Brushing with a Coggshall brush, al- 

 though it might do with extreme care, would be likely 

 to result in torn cells. Even something no stiffer than 

 goldenrod or sweet clover needs much care. I like best 



