86 PROFITABLE BEE-KEEPING 
on to a time long past that defined by the apiarist 
as his limit, and therefore it is not wise to leave 
it to them. 
When bees are found to be building super- 
sedure cells, by all means let the good work 
go on and utilize the cells, as they produce the 
best of queens. Good cells may also be obtained 
when a colony, swarms, but at other times when 
the apiarist wishes to rear queens he must com- 
pel his bees to raise a batch. This is done by, 
making a colony queenless, and at the same time 
depriving it of all unsealed brood and eggs. 
Twenty-four hours afterwards give them a frame 
of eggs from the hive containing the best queen 
in the apiary, first cutting the comb away at the 
bottom up to the first row of eggs. This will 
give. room for the queen-cells to hang. Feed the 
queenless colony gently, and in about ten days’ 
time the nuclei may. be formed. 
Nuclei are small colonies of bees formed for 
the purpose of getting the young queens fertil- 
ized, and they should consist of three good frames 
of bees, two of the frames containing mature 
brood. The queen-raising colony will form three 
good nuclei, one of which, and the weakest of 
the three, should be left in the original hive. 
Nuclei may, be placed either in full-sized hives 
or in small hives holding three frames only. 
Give each of these small colonies at least one 
good queen-cell, enclosed in a cell-protector, and 
cover the whole up warmly. In a fortnight from 
