AUSTRALASIAN BEE MANUAL 99 



to end bar, about "" 



one-third down from 



the top bar. One 



frame of eggs or 



larvae will usually 



afford strips for two 



or more frames. The Fig. 56.- — -frame for fastening 



wax used in fasten- the strips of comb to. 



ing the strips must 



not be too hot or it will melt them and destroy the eggs. 



preparing a colony for queen cell building. 



Select a strong colony — a strong two-story colony 

 with plenty of nurse bees is best — and, first of all, make 

 a nucleus colony with the queen and the frame she is 

 on, and one additional frame of unsealed brood and 

 another of food, with their adhering bees (see instruc- 

 tions for making nuclei). Then remove all frames of 

 unsealed brood without the adhering bees. These, for 

 the time being, may be placed in the top story of 

 another hive containing a strong colony. The frame of 

 strips for queen cells may now be placed in the centre 

 of the brood nest ; or the hive may be prepared for them 

 a few hours beforehand. Being deprived of their queen, 

 and having no eggs or larvae in the hive except those 

 supplied, the bees must build the cells over them. The 

 date and age of the eggs or larvae should always be 

 marked on the frames, as it will then be known when 

 the young queens will come to maturity. If honey is 

 not corning in freely at this time, the bees should be fed 

 liberally with sugar syrup; there will be more and better 

 cells built by so doing. 



RETURNING THE QUEEN AND BROOD. 



The Alley system of queen rearing has been objected 

 to by some bee-keepers because they unreasonably sup- 

 posed that a strong colony must be broken up for each 

 batch of queen cells. This is wrong, for as soon as the 

 queen cells have been sealed (or even before), the frame, 



