20 
THE BEARING OF QUEEN BEES. 
to use cell bars holding sixteen cells each, and two or three of these 
bars are fastened in one Langstroth frame. Frequently two or even 
three such frames are put in one hive; but usually part of the cells are 
sealed or in nurseries, so that there are usually not more than fifty at 
a time which require feeding. These cells may also be put in any 
colony w r ith a laying queen, provided an incubating cage of perforated 
zinc is placed around them (see figs. 4 and 5), or in the second story of 
a two-stor} r colon} T , with the queen kept below by a perforated zinc 
honey board (see fig. 3). 
STYLES OF NURSERY CAGES. 
One day before the queens are due to emerge, each cell must be 
placed in an individual nursery, so that the young emerging queens 
can not attack each other. This nursery may be made of wire cloth 
Fig. 9.— Titoff nurseries in frame holder, showing construction of nursery (original) . 
or of perforated zinc, but wire cloth is perhaps better, since in one or 
two cases in our apiary, during the past summer, young virgin queens 
managed to get through the perforated zinc and to do some damage 
before being discovered. The cell should not be put in a wire-cloth 
nursery more than one day before the queen is due to emerge, for the 
workers should be allowed to thin down the wall of the cell so that the 
queen will have no difficulty in gnawing her waj- out. Even when 
separated from the workers by wire cloth for one day, the queen 
usualty takes a longer time in getting- out, but no queen which has 
vitality enough to become a prolific layer will ever entirely fail to do so. 
Many different kinds of nursery cages have been advocated, and 
really there is little choice between them, each queen breeder prefer- 
ring the one he has used, the choice frequentty being made without 
trying any other. Before making a choice, however, it would be wise 
