FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 233 



TIME TO START NUCLEI. 



In nine or ten days from the removal of the queen it 

 is time to break up the queenless colony into nuclei. It 

 might generally be left till a day or two later before a 

 young queen would come out to destroy her baby sisters 



Fig, 81. — Sobber Bees. 



in their cradles, but it is best to take no chances. If it 

 were true, as formerly believed, that queenless bees are 

 in such haste to rear a queen that they will select a 

 larva too old for the purpose, then it would hardly do to 

 wait even nine days. A queen is matured in fifteen days 



