262 FIFTY YEABS AMONG THE BEES 



from it. She may be imperfect as to her legs, and, what is 

 still worse, her wings may be so deficient that she never can 

 fiy. If she can not fly she can never be fertilized, and so is 

 worthless. Indeed she is worse than worthless, for she is wasting 

 the time of the nucleus. Sometimes, indeed, it happens that 

 the occupant of the queen-cell is dead. All of this is avoided 

 by having the virgins hatch out in a nursery. If a cell is cut 

 into, and is given to a nucleus, the bees will at once destroy 

 it, but in the nursery it will hatch out all right. 



One may have a lot of queen-cells on hand with no im- 

 mediate use for them. It will not do to leave them without 

 cutting out beyond a certain time, for the hatching out of the 

 first one means the death of all the rest. But if they are put 

 into a nursery they are safe, and may be left stored in the 

 nursery for some days after hatching out. 



Over against these advantages stands the one disadvan- 

 tage that in the nursery the bees are not allowed to come in 

 immediate bodily contact with the cells, nor with the young 

 queen after she issues from the cell. Some think this so serious 

 a disadvantage as to overbalance all the advantages of the 

 nursery. It is claimed that the clustering of the bees about 

 the cells and the young queens does more than merely to keep 

 up the temperature to a certain point, and that when this close 

 contact is lacking something will be lacking in the resulting 

 queens. Also that the yoimg queens thus isolated and impris- 

 oned are in a frightened condition, and that a young queen 

 reared in such an atmosphere is not the same as one that has 

 the feeling that she is all the while closely surrounded by 

 friends. 



So whether it be wise to use a nursery or not, it will 

 certainly be wise not to put cells into it before it is necessary 

 for their safety, nor to leave a virgin in a nursery any longer 

 than necessity demands. 



QUALITY OF QUEENS. 



The question has been raised whether queens reared in 

 the way I have described are as good as those reared by the 

 latest methods. I think I can judge pretty well as to the char- 

 fi,cter of a queen after watching her work for a year or two; I 



