3o8 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
pollen residues, a dirty-coloured, nearly fluid, mass. 
Against ordinary nurseries, with all their convenience, 
we must regard this objection as a grave one, which 
is entirely avoided by placing, side by side, over 
natural stores of pollen and honey, my flat introducing- 
cages (Fig. 89), or any similar forms ; but unless 
wooden strips be added at the edges, to delay the 
bees in burrowing, the royal cells, or queens, would 
not be safe for more than three days. 
About twelve years since, while endeavouring to 
follow out the changes through which the larva became 
at length the (imago) perfect bee, I found that, if the 
former be kept in a warm and damp atmosphere, 
removal from the cell was by no means quickly fatal, 
and that queens so treated could be carried through 
all their changes while exposed to observation ; and, 
moreover, that fluctuations in temperature considerably 
delaying their development, did not prevent their j 
arriving at length at the perfect stage, although ’ 
they were miserably enfeebled. All know well j] 
that, in warm weather, workers will gnaw out, 
here and there, from comb that has been days away ; 
from its natural protectors. Reasoning upon this ‘ 
observation, an American, Mr. F. R. Shaw, constructed ; 
what is now known as a lamp nursery, the object of i 
which was to carry queen-cells on from sealing to | 
hatching, apart from the interference of the bees, i 
Mr. A. I. Root improved upon Mr. Shaw’s plan, j 
substituting water for hot air,* but defects remained, 
which I have endeavoured to reduce, making the 
nursery as at Fig. 85. 
* “A B C of Bee Culture” — “Lamp Nursery.” 
