120 ITALIAN QUEEN REARING. 



the pan when necessary to feed, and when the bees arc to be 

 confined to the hive, turn the other end of the flap, which should 

 have a hole in it covered with wire-cloth, to give ventilation. 

 The boxes should be painted a variety of bright colors — some 

 white, others red, blue, &c. — and scattered over the yard so that 

 a young queen may easily distinguish her hive from any other 

 near it. A cheap stand is made by nailing strips of board for 

 posts to each corner of a bottom-board eighteen or twenty inches 

 square. The posts should project eight inches below the bottom 

 board, for legs, and two of them sixteen and two eighteen inches 

 above it, laying on a board for shade. We make the small 

 frames the proper size to fit four of them into one of the large 

 frames, and thus obtain brood from any hive by filling the small 

 frames with thin worker-comb, or sticking in small pieces and 

 allowing the bees to build the combs. "We prefer, however, to 

 have one or more breeding hives made the same as the small 

 hives, but long enough to hold sixteen of the small frames, and 

 having several entrances along the front side. 



HOW TO COMMENCE QUEEN REARING. 



As soon as drones can be reared in the spring, break up the 

 stock from which you wish to breed, and transfer the combs into 

 the small frames, placing them on the old stand in one of the 

 long breeding hives. Shake the bees upon a sheet near the 

 entrance, and as fast as tney enter and collect on the combs they 

 may be lifted out and placed in the nuclei boxes, giving a frame 

 of brood and one of honey to each, and filling the other two 

 frames with empty comb. 



