2q6 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
They are often attached firmly to the latter, which 
may be torn and spoiled unless a thin knife be 
run down at k in the Figure, 
How much it would tend to our convenience if the 
bees could be taught to build their royal cells in 
a symmetrical arrangement, at regular intervals ! and 
many devices have been stated to possess the virtue 
of giving the necessary instruction, but my experience 
with them leads me to think that most of their 
advocates have not seriously tried them. Merely 
enlarging the cell mouth with a piece of conical 
wood I have not found to determine the position 
of a queen-cell one time in twenty ; but breaking 
down the cell walls on the under side, after the 
larva has escaped from the egg, and continuing 
the destruction for 4in., or till the bottom edge of 
the comb is reached, is more, though by no means 
uniformly, successful. It is bad economy, however, 
to allow the queen-raising stock to build more queen- 
cells than we can utilise, or any in such positions 
that they must be useless. If an examination be 
made, the excess, or the awkwardly-placed ones, may 
be destroyed by a gash, fatally injuring the grub. 
Mr. Alley,* a very prominent American queen-raiser, 
has carried the problem of placing royal cells to a 
greater degree of refinement than any other ; and, 
without recommending — for I venture on several 
points to differ — I give an outline of his system, 
which, to me, was too troublesome to be continued, 
although so interesting that its omission would be 
* “ The Bee-keeper’s Handy Book,” by Henry Alley. 
