264 A Modern Bee Farm 



statements to influence our actions ? Are our processes 

 of queen-raising natural? Is our entire management 

 natural ? No ! only in so far that natural conditions do 

 not interfere with greater profits. Let me ask those who 

 use the hanging-frame nursery if they have observed the 

 temperature surrounding a queen cell with the bees always 

 packed closely around it, thus giving greater or at least 

 more certain heat than is required for the rest of the hive ? 

 If so, they will be surprised to find how much lower is the 

 temperature surrounding their cells where no bees can 

 cluster upon them, and where they do not even care to 

 crowd upon the metal at each side of the little cages so 

 many apiarists use in hanging-frames. All animal life is 

 produced by heat, varying according as the nature of the 

 creature may require, and for our purpose the lamp- 

 nursery supplies the correct and e\-en temperature 

 desired. 



The illustration, Fig. 68, gives the metal portion of my 

 own queen nursery, an apparatus I had made in the first 

 instance as an incubator for fowl's eggs. The rectangular 

 portion shows the opening at the side, with a double 

 casing on all other sides, with about one inch between 

 the inner and outer walls. The whole of this compart- 

 ment is inclosed by wood with a closely-fitting door which 

 closes the said open side. The inside is fitted with skele- 

 ton framework wherein slide several drawers, each covered 

 on the underside with woven wire. The same arrange- 

 ment will also take whole frames of comb, but I prefer 

 to have the cells built that they may be cut out singly 

 and so placed in the trays. A thermometer lies on the 

 centre division of one of the drawers ; while another is 

 fixed in a vertical position under glass in the centre of the 

 •door ; this glass being again covered by a close-fitting 

 shutter to avoid extremes ; thus the internal temperature 



