CHAPTER XX. 



QUEEN REARING. 



Protection of Queen-ccUs — Nucleus Hives — Various Methods of Queen 

 Rearing— American Plan — Introduction of Stranger Queens — 

 Difficulties. 



The breeding of queens can only be done with ease 

 and complete success in bar-frame hives. If, on 

 examination of the frames of a stock, queen-cells 

 with brood in them are found, these may be protected 

 by means of little wire cages from the animosity of 

 the mother-bee, and in due course the princesses, as 

 they hatch out, may be transferred to a small box, 

 with a piece of comb and a few bees belonging to the 

 hive. Care must be taken not to let the cage touch 

 the cell over which it is placed, and it should be 

 thrust into the comb only to the base of one set of 

 cells. The best time for thus affording protection is 

 when the larva is six or seven days old. 



A second plan is to take from a hive, late in the 

 afternoon, a comb containing worker-eggs, with 

 brood in more advanced stages, and a sufficient 

 number of bees to keep up warmth enough to pro- 

 mote the development of the larvae. These must all 

 be put into a very small hive, and a supply of honey 



