ITALIAN BEES. 
13 
but if a colony has had its queen removed a few hours or 
days, they will be anxious to receive another ; and if they 
have access to worker eggs will rear a number of young ones. 
If the bee-keeper will take his pure Italian queen from her 
hive, the colony will proceed to rear from five to ten young 
ones, which will commence hatching in ten or eleven 
days from the time the queen is removed. One or two of 
these should be left in the hive for their use. At the expi- 
ration of eight or nine days, the remainder may be cut out, 
leaving a little comb with the cell to prevent bruising it. As 
many native queens may now be removed from their hives as 
there are of these cells, and one of the cells immediately put 
in each hive, having previously cut a hole in a brood comb 
to receive the cell. The queen will most likely emerge from 
the cell in two or three days, and a week after this fly abroad 
to mate with the drones, and in two or three days more will 
commence laying eggs, which will hatch in three weeks ; and 
usually in two or three months from this time all the native 
stock will be dead, and the Italians in their place. These 
young quftms will be apt to mate with the kind of drones 
most abundant when they fly out; and if these be native, of 
course the progeny will not be pure, except that the drones 
from all such queens will be pure Italian; so that if, after this, 
pure queens are reared in 6uch an apiary, or bee-yard, they 
will be quite certain to mate with pure Italian drones. These 
hybrids may then be removed and pure ones inserted in their 
stead. If, having removed a queen and inserted a cell, the 
latter fails to hatch, the colony will rear a native queen from 
their own brood. 
To remove the queen, if in a movable comb-hive, open 
the hive and she can be found on the combs. If in a com- 
mon box hive, invert the hive and set an empty one of nearly 
the same size on top of this ; then by rapping on the lower 
hive the bees will be driven into the upper box When the 
bees begin to run up, the top box may be leaned to one side 
and search be made for the queen, as the bees go up the side 
of the hive. Hut, if she is not thus found, the hive may be 
set on its stand, and the bees shaken out on a sheet in front 
of it, and hived as when they swarm. The queen may then 
be found as the bees run into the hive. 
Another mode of rearing a queen, is to destroy the queen 
of a hive of natives. Eight days after this open the hive and 
