12 
THE BEARING OF QUEEN BEES. 
DESCRIPTION OF CELL CUPS. 
It is much better to use a cell base artificially produced. These 
cells can be made of wax, or on wooden bases with a depression which 
is filled with wax. They are just as readily accepted by the bees, and 
because of uniformity and ease of handling are much preferable. 
The Doolittle cell, made by molding wax on a stick with rounded 
end of the exact diameter of a queen cell, is very good and was proba- 
bly the first artificial cell used in commercial queen rearing. The 
molding stick is dipped in hot wax, and when one layer of wax is cool, 
the process is repeated, each time the stick being dipped a shorter 
distance. The result is a cup with thin edges and heavy base. Such 
cells are also made by pressing out the wax in a mold. The cells are 
then fastened to a bar with wax preparatory to introducing the larva? 
(see figo 1). 
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lit) DiniiitiiMH 
tfiG. 1.— Standard frame with bar of completed cells on wooden flanged cups and bar of Doolittle 
wax cells (original). 
Cups with wooden bases are now widely used and have many advan- 
tages over the wax cups, in that they can be transferred from one bar 
to another without danger of breaking and can more readily be used 
again after the queen has emerged. These cups are usually made of a 
cylindrical piece of wood with a concave depression in one end which 
is lined with wax. There is a nail point in one end which allows them 
to be fastened to a bar by pressure (see fig. 2), or, better, there is a 
flange at the upper end so that they can be put through holes bored 
in the bar (see figs. 1 and 2). 
TRANSFERRING LARVAE. 
Having procured the cells to be used, with the requisite bars, the 
bee keeper is ready to transfer larvae to these cells. Before being 
