-ayo A Modern Bee-Farm 



-Qiving a virgin immediately upon removing a fertile 



Queen, 



and that is how it is done. The virgin being caged all 

 the time in the hive, the ,bees accept her as soon as the 

 fertile queen is removed. The plan however has recently 

 been offered in America as a new and valuable feature, 

 but an experience of many years, has shown me the 

 dangers of relying too implicitly upon this practice, and I 

 am compelled to give a 



Very necessary Caution. 



Repeating that given on page 30 of my " Ne:i< Queen 

 Rearing" (1894): "They positively will not accept the 

 virgin until the third day, under ordinary conditions, and 

 there is certainly no time gained by attempting to induce 

 them to do sc 1 have by a certain process, given a 

 virgin at the same time the fertile queen was removed, 

 thinking I was about to gain time, but the result was so 

 often unsatisfactory that I now never attempt to give a 

 virgin until the third day. You see the bees were feeding 

 and otherwise tending a iertile queen with largely 

 developed ovaries. They continued the same process 

 with the x'irgin in nearly all cases ; she would then have 

 the appearance of a fertile queen and lost the desire to 

 become impregnated." One sees then the danger in con- 

 sidering this bulky virgin queen as one just fertilised, and 

 the unpleasant business which would follow were she sent 

 out as fertile. 



Consequently even with duplicate queens, each must 

 have fair play, while those following must not be let out 

 under three days ; and when considered fertile should not 

 be sold as untested fertile queens until they havr capped 

 brood distinct from that started by the earlier queens. 



