T'ORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 231 



royal progeny of the best queen in the world may be very 

 poor. Queen-cells must be started when the weather is 



Mg. 80.—Cleated Smoker. 



sufficiently warm, when bees are gathering enough to 

 make them feel that there is no need to stint the royal 

 larvse in their rations, and until near the point of 

 emergence it is much better that the cells shall be in the 

 care of a strong colony. So I do not begin operations 

 for queen-rearing until about the time that bees inclined 

 to swarming would begin to make preparations therefor. 



REARING QUEENS IN HIVE WITH LAYING QUEEN. 



It would be too long a story to enumerate all the 

 plans I have used in queen-rearing. I have reared ex- 



