RAISING AND INTRODUCTION OF QUEENS. 301 
permitted. No worker-brood is given to these bees, 
of course, as all their energies are to be concen- 
trated on queen-production ; but a little capped drone- 
brood will greatly encourage them. If the imprison- 
ment begin in the morning, the liberation may be made 
at night, when the bees, by the next day, will be recon- 
ciled to the new state of things, and have their cells 
already started. That these are approximately perpen- 
dicular and mouth downwards will puzzle none who will 
look at the form of the normal cell (A, Fig. 77). The 
cells will grow downwards, and occupy the position shown 
in the Figure, in which Mr. Alley’s has been partially 
followed. In practice, however, the spaces between the 
cells will be, to a considerable extent, filled with a 
wax septem, deeply pitted, and sometimes stored with 
honey ; but these additions will not prevent the knife 
from effecting the separation of the cells when they 
are ready for transferring to nuclei. Mr. Alley, for 
a reason which I have previously explained, cautions 
all queen-breeders against permitting the bees to 
build too many cells. He considers twelve sufficient 
for an average colony of all races but Cyprians and 
Syrians, to which a larger number may be per- 
mitted. The excess may be destroyed by the 
match, as before. My experience shows that, by 
this plan, the bees will not convert every egg or 
larva given them into a queen ; and often many are 
missed, so that more strips must be supplied than 
would, if fully utilised, make up the number of cells 
we desire to have constructed. Liberal feeding, as 
previously hinted, if the honey-flow be not abundant, 
is an actual necessity. 
