Some of my half bloods perfectly ferocious. They alight upon and try to sting the burning
punk. Removed a queen on the 8th. On the 18th cut out queen cells and gave them to a
nucleus. Same number hatched on the 19th. One hatched at 7 AM and another at 8 AM, this AM
nearly 17 days after queen was removed, both beautiful, perfect queens. Find the best way to
keep young queens is in express boxes such as I send off queens in. Am using up some
very old comb with bee bread and honey for nuclei. Increasingly pleased with having one
place to set comb with honey, plates, etc. It does not promote robbing. Several more
infertile queens starved in my outdoor nursery. Something new. When a queen cell
has gone beyond the usual time without hatching or when for any reason we suspect
that its inmate is dead, open it carefully with a small knife low down
on one side, the appearance of the queen will often show whether she is
dead or not. If she is alive the bees will very soon close up the small
opening. If she is dead they will ordinarily drag her out by enlarging
the opening. Cheap plan to test queens. As soon as a queen has begun to
lay quite freely, cage her and keep her in her stock or in a stock educated
to feed queens. Let the colony at once have a nearly mature queen cell. 
When workers of first queen ought to hatch freely, examine carefully, two
queens may be caged thus and a third one at liberty, before the 1st is tested. 
We thus lose no more of the effective force of the colony than we should if we
sent off the queen soon after she began to lay. 26th. Cloudy but not a drop of
rain yet. Have opened queen cells on the side a number of times and find them always
carefully repaired by bees. Yesterday removed a queen just impregnated from a hive overflowing
with drones and shall for the present feed them but give no means of receiving queens today,
removed another queen in same condition from similarly situated hive, gave them brood to raise
a queen, shall feed, see which [crossed out: illegible] keeps its drones the best. On opening the
side of a queen cell today for the 4th time I could see that the wings of the queen were grown
and that she was nearly mature. On the next visit found the bees enlarging instead
of closing the entrance and the queen crept out all right. Corn Cob Mat. 
Have devised a plan for improving Sprague's arrangement of corn cobs over the tops
of hives instead of honey board in winter. Let the cobs be as uniform in size
and length as may be, tie them with thin strong twine somewhat as bunches of straw
are tied for straw mats reversing every other cob so as to make them work uniformly,
two mats would be needed for each hive, hung up with string when not in use, excellent to
pour feed upon if needed or to give water to bees. Bees delight to have something warm
and dry to cluster up against, some of these cobs might be put into an empty frame or
a mat made to go on the sides. If a hive would be benefitted by lining should very much
prefer to line with corn cobs. The cobs can be better made into a mat by punching holes in
them and using wire. (27th) Hot, dry. [illegible] A queen whose cell I opened
five or six times on the side found hatched at 5 AM, all right. Queen removed from the
colony where she was reared on the 8th. Must have been nearly 19 days at least in rearing.