PRACTICAL BEEKEEPING 63 
sirable to have will depend on the number of queens to be reared. 
Ordinarily each nucleus will turn out two to three queens each 
month if properly handled. 
The cells, when within a couple of days of the time of emerg- 
ing, which will be about five days after sealing, may be removed from 
the colony where reared and distributed one to each of the nuclei. 
The next day the nuclei should be examined to see if the cells are 
accepted. If any are destroyed they should be replaced. Then the 
cells should be watched and the day of emergence noted. 
Usually four or five days and sometimes even a week will elapse 
after the emergence before the young queen takes her bridal! flight. 
She may fly several times before fertilization is accomplished, but 
when accomplished it will be denoted by regular deposition of eggs. 
Sometimes a newly mated queen can be seen upon the comb having 
but just returned from her flight. A white spot is plainly visible 
upon the tip of the abdomen where the portion of the drones re- 
productive organ retained in the act of copulation is still seen. In 
opening nuclei containing virgin queens, care should be taken not 
to alarm them lest they take wing and perhaps, if they have not 
yet flown, may not get back into the right nucleus. For this reason 
it is well to have nuclei pretty well separated. Sometimes, on the 
return of a newly mated queen, the bees, taking a dislike tu the 
odor, of the drone about her, may pitch upon and ball her, so dis- 
abling her that she is of little or no value. There occurences, how- 
ever, are not very common. 
A young queen thus regularly laying is ready for use about 
the apiary or for sending out by mail to other parties desiring queens. 
Such a queen when sold is classed as an untested queen, since her 
exact mating is not known. Upon keeping a queen thrée or four 
weeks, until her progeny have emerged, she is classed as a tested 
cueen if her workers prove her to have been purely mated; that is, 
with a drone of the same race or variety. It is to be noticed in 
this connection that the daughter of a pure or imported queen, no 
matter what her mating is, will produce drones of the race of 
which she came, since they come from unfertilized eggs. Her 
workers and queens, bred from her, however, necessarily partake of 
the character of the drone with which she mated. 
The disposition of the young queens when fertilized and ready 
for use, leads us into the discussion of the mailing of queens and 
