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drones may to a great extent be prevented. If stocks 
belonging to your neighbors are to be Italianized, they 
should be brought to your apiary and treated in like 
manner. If the combs taken from the Italian stock are 
replaced with empty combs, other nuclese may be 
formed as soon as the first drones begin to hatch, that 
being the proper time. 
Nine days after forming the nucleus, open it and as- 
certain the number of perfect and separated queen- 
cells, and for every four cells in the nucleus, remove 
the queens of three colonies. On the next day, trans- 
fer a perfect queen-cell to every queenless stock, in- 
serting it near the centre of the brood and mark the 
frame so as to facilitate the examination made on the 
next day to ascertain their condition ; if any of them 
are destroyed, another one must be inserted from the 
reserved cells in the nucleus. One cell should remain 
in the nucleus, and the entire nucleus used to form an- 
other nucleus swarm at the proper time. If, after re- 
placing such cells as may have been destroyed, any 
cells remain, they may be used in new nuclae, formed 
from black 'colonies, preparatory to swarming. 
By the above method, the stocks are without a lay- 
ing queen for a short time, causing them to become 
somewhat weakened, besides the risk incurred in get- 
ting some queenless colonies by loosing the queen when 
out to meet the drones; or, if brood in the proper 
