184 FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 



FOUNDATION PLAN. 



The preliminary work in this plan, which may be 

 called the foundation plan, is precisely the same as the 

 preliminary work done when the last-described plan was 

 used, that is, the plan of putting up a hive to rear a 

 young queen. When speaking of that plan I said noth- 

 ing about the preliminary work, and I will now give in 

 detail the preliminary work and all the work of the 

 foundation plan. 



PRELIMINARY WORK. 



As soon as colonies become strong and are work- 

 ing busily, we begin to be on the lookout. This gener- 

 ally will not be till the bees are at work on clover bloom, 

 although it may happen in some seasons that prepara- 

 tion for swarming begins during the last of fruit-bloom. 

 Whether it be in apple or clover bloom, we begin to ex- 

 amine some of the strongest colonies to see if any prep- 

 arations for swarming are made. If we find none in 

 the strongest colonies it is hardly worth while to look 

 through the rest. When, however, we find one or more 

 queen-cells with an egg in each, then it is time to begin 

 a systematic canvas of all colonies, and to keep it up in 

 all so long as we continue to find queen-cells in any, ex- 

 cept in a case where a colony has already been treated by 

 the foundation plan, or where there is a young queen of 

 the current year. 



LOOKING FOR QUEEN-CELLS. 



We plan to go through each colony about once in 

 ten days to look for queen-cells. I say about once in 

 ten days, for it is not always possible to be exact. It 

 may happen that one or two days in succession will be 

 rainy, and then the ten days become eleven or twelve. 

 Or, it may be that on account of some interference with 



