QUEEN NURSERIES TESTING QUEENS. 91 



or nucleus, by cutting out a corresponding triangular i)iece. Fig. 54 

 shows a queen cell inserted in a brood comb. It is safest not to cut 

 the cells out until tbey are within twenty-four to forty-eight hours of 

 their full maturity. In case a nucleus or colony has not been queen- 

 less long enough to make it ready to accept a queen cell, the latter 

 may be placed in a cell protector made of wire cloth or of a spiral coil 

 of wire and then inserted between the central combs of the hive. The 

 lower end only of the protector is open, so that the upper portion of the 

 cell — the part easily bitten o])en by the workers — is wholly covered. 



Queen nurseries on the general plan devised many years ago by Dr. 

 Jewell Davis, of Illinois, are used to hold surplus maturing cells and 

 the young queens, after emerging, for which colonies or nuclei are not 

 ready at once. These nurseries consist of compartments about 1 J inches 

 square, made of wood and wire cloth, and so arranged that they may 

 be suspended in the center of a colony of bees, a frame being filled with 

 them for this jmrpose. Each compartment contains a bit of soft candy 

 to sustain the hfe of the queen in case the bees fail to feed her. Spiral 

 coils of wire somewhat longer than those used as queen-cell protectors 

 have been arranged with a metal cup for food, so that, in principle, 

 they are the same as the compartments of the Davis queen nurseries 

 and are used for the same purpose. 



The young queens will usually mate when from five to seven days 

 old, flying from the hive for this purpose. If any undesirable drones are 

 in the apiary they may be restrained from flying by means of excluder 

 zinc over the hive entrances, i:>ermitting only workers to pass in and 

 out. In a day or two after mating the queen generally commences to 

 deposit eggs, and is then ready for use in the apiary or to be sent away 

 as an " untested queen." To enable her to rank as a "tested queen" it 

 will be necessary to keep her three weeks or a little longer in order to 

 see her worker progeny and ascertain by their markings that the queen 

 has mated with a drone of her owu race. As both tested and untested 

 queens are usually raised from the same mothers — the best in the given 

 apiary — either may be obtained for honey production; but for use as 

 breeders only tested queens which have been approved in every way 

 should be purchased, unless, indeed, the purchaser prefers to buy sev- 

 eral untested ({ueens, Avhich can usually be obtained for the price of one 

 approved and selected breeder, and do his own testing, trusting that 

 among them one or more may prove valuable as a breeding (]neen. 

 "Warranted queens" are untested queens sent out with a guaranty 

 that they have mated purely. If few or no drones of another race ai-e 

 in the vicinity of a breeder, he is tolerably safe in doing this. The 

 proper plan is for the breeder to keep a rec;ord of the brood of all such 

 queens and replace such as show that they have mismated. 



Exact records of the ages of all queens should be kept, and notes on 

 the qualities of their progeny are desirable, while in some instances 

 particulars as to pedigrees are valuable. 



