298 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
them in check. They are brushed into a bottomless 
box, somewhat smaller than a standard hive, and 
covered with wire-cloth above and below. So soon 
as they miss their queen they start an uproar, which 
knows no pause until they are released (see page 
263). Their confinement is continued in a cool, dark 
room, for ten or twelve hours, a pint of syrup being 
given them. Reasoning from what Mr. Alley has 
sc 
Fig. 80.— Alley’s System of Preparing Comb for Queen-raising. 
A, Comb from Alley’s Miniature Hive cut into Strips (Natural Size). B, Side 
View of One of the Strips— sc, Shortened Cells. 
observed in pigeons, he concludes, quite erroneously, 
as I think, that confined queenless bees “ prepare or 
secrete the white, milky food which we find in the 
bottom of the cells around the eggs (subsequently) 
given them for rearing queens, and which is of the 
same nature as the royal jelly upon which the young 
queens feed while confined to the cell ; also, that it 
is necessary that they be kept queenless until instinct 
