332 FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 



was given to a nucleus, a second virgin was given without 

 disturbing the first. This second virgin was given in a 

 provisioned queen-cage, so arranged that the bees could 

 not get at the candy to release her. In due time the first 

 was laying and removed. At the time of her removal, the 

 candy was uncovered in the cage of the second, so that 

 the bees could release her. (Misunderstanding instruc- 

 tions, I at first let the second virgin out of the cage at 

 the time of removing the first ; she was killed every time 

 — a thing that never happened, to my knowledge, when 

 the bees freed her by eating through the candy.) At the 

 same time that the first was removed and the second 

 partially released, a third was given caged, and that was 

 the regular program thereafter : the laying queen re- 

 moved, the caged virgin left so the bees could release her, 

 and a fresh one given as a prisoner, all at the same visit. 

 Of course this program could not always be rigidly fol- 

 lowed ; sometimes no fresh virgin was on hand at the time 

 the laying queen was removed ; so the rest of the pro- 

 gram was followed, and a fresh virgin given as soon as 

 possible. 



It didn't seem a natural thing to keep virgins caged 

 so long, and I feared that they might turn out inferior 

 as queens ; but so far as I have been able to judge, they 

 do not seem to be any worse for their imprisonment. 



IIAY-RACK FOR HAULING BEES. 



It has become the fashion "in this locality" for farm- 

 ers to have hay-racks with a level floor, and I am now 

 using one of these for hauling bees instead of the special 

 rack described on page 48. One advantage is that a hay- 

 rack is alwa)S on hand, the only special thing in the case 

 being that the heavy springs are put under it. The 

 springs do away with the necessity of having hay or any- 

 thing of that kind under the hives. The middle boards of 

 the floor are loose, allowing them to be removed while a 

 row of hives is put into the body part, and then the boards 

 are replaced, making a level floor to be covered with 



