276 COMMERCIAL QUEEN REARING. 



There is one trait iii the 'character of bees which is worthy 

 of profound respect. Such is their indomitable energy and 

 perseverance, that under circumstances apparently hopeless, 

 they labor to the utmost to retrieve their losses, and sustain 

 the sinking State. So long as they have a queen, or any 

 prospect of raising one, they strui;gle vigriruusly against im- 

 l)ending ruin, and never give up until their condition is abso- 

 lutely desperate. We once knew a colony of bees not large 

 enough to cover a piece of comb four inches square, to attempt 

 t(i liiise a queen. For two whole weeks, they adhered to their 

 f(n'lorn hope; until at last, when they had dwindled to less 

 than one-half their original number, their new cjueen emerged, 

 but with wings so imperfect that she cuuld not fly. Crippled 

 as she was, they treated her with almost as much respect as 

 though she were fertile. In the course of a week more, scarce 

 a dozen workers remained in the hWe, and a few days later, 

 the queen was gone, and only a few disconsolate wretches were 

 left on the comb. 



COMMERCIAL QUEEX EEAPJXG. 



THE ALLEY METHOD. 



528. Mr. Alley, who raised queens by the thousand, has 

 liublished his method of queen-rearing. His queens are all 

 raised in very small nuclei which he calls miniature hives. 

 From a light-colored worker-comb filled with hatching eggs, 

 he cuts strips with a sharp knife, as in fig. 107. 



iiJi-JJC 



^^^iSiPSl 



Fig. 107. 



EGG IN EVERY OTHEP. CELL. 



(From Alley.) 



"After the comb has been cut up, Iny the pieces flat upon a 

 Ijciaril (ir talile, and cut the erlls on one side down to within 

 one-fourth of au inch of the foundation or septum, as seen in 



