248 FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 



i/4xj^x34, a piece of tin and a piece of section stufif each 

 134 inches square form the material for the plug. Lay 

 the two blocks parallel on their sides, with 34 inch space 

 between them. On these nail the piece of tin, turn over, 

 and nail on the section stufif. Near one end drive a tack 

 partly in to prevent the plug going too far into the cage. 

 That makes all complete.' 



DISTRIBUTING QUEEN-CELLS. 



When the queen-cells are to be distributed on Satur- 

 day, the first thing is to provision a number of queen- 

 cages with the usual queen-candy, tacking a piece of 

 pasteboard on the end of the plug. Then we go to the 

 nucleus where the cells are stored, cut out the cells, re- 

 jecting any that do not appear satisfactory, and put the 

 cells in the cages. Some cells, however, are left uncaged. 

 When we come to a nucleus that has had no queen for a 

 day or more, there is no need of caging the cell. It is 

 put against the comb in a good place, and fastened there 

 with a hive-staple (Fig. 85). Coming to a nucleus with 

 a queen which we wish to remove, we put the queen in 

 a cage, and give the nucleus a caged cell, laying the cage 

 against the comb and nailing it there with a ij^ or 1% 

 wire nail (Fig. 93). This nail is slender so as to push 

 easily through the meshes of the wire-cloth. Then the 

 young queens that we have removed are used wherever 

 needed. 



BRUSHING BEES OFF QUEEN-CELLS. 



Before cutting cells from the comb the bees must be 

 removed, and it would mean the ruin of the cells to shake 

 the bees ofif. Brushing with a Coggshall brush, al- 

 though it might do with extreme care, would be likely 

 to result in torn cells. Even something no stififer than 

 goldenrod or sweet clover needs much care. I like best 



