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AUSTRALASIAN 



one colony to care for, and this is near the number that is 

 usually found in a hive from which a strong colony has just 

 cast a swarm. As soon as the cells are forward enough to be 

 plainly seen, destroy all except about ten or twelve of the 

 largest and best-looking ones. 



Having now as far as possible fulfilled on our part every 

 condition necessary to ensure the rearing of good queens, we 

 must be content to leave the rest to the bees for a few days. 

 The cells, when fully formed and capped, will have something 

 of the appearance of Fig. 100, though the engraving is rather a 

 flattering one. 



Fig. 100 FRAME OF QUEEN CELLS. 



It will be remembered that the date and age of the eggs — 

 three days — was marked on the frame, so that we can calculate 

 the day when the queens will be at maturity ; that will be on 

 the thirteenth after inserting the eggs. Being able to know 

 within a few hours when the queens will emerge is one of the 

 great advantages of this system of queen-rearing. By the old 

 methods, and even when cells are built under the swarming 

 impulse, it is impossible to say correctly how old the embryo 

 queens may be. 



As soon as the cells are capped, a frame or two of emerging 

 brood may be given to the colony to strengthen it. It will 

 have been noticed by those who have had any experience in 

 queen-breeding, that there is often a marked difference between 

 queen cells ; some are long, pointed, and dense-looking, while 

 others are stunted and thin-walled. The latter are always 

 reckoned to contain poor queens, and it will be well to shun 

 them, and make use of none but well-formed, rough-looking, 

 long, pointed ones. On the morning of the twelfth day after 

 the eggs were given the nuclei can be formed. 



