Figure 6
The above is one of the reasons why I use a queen nursery; another reason is that each nursery cage is equal to a nucleus colony.
My plan has always been to have queens ready to give nuclei in three days after removing a laying queen. That is as soon as a virgin queen can safely be introduced in such cases.
The queen nursery is one of the most valuable implements any queen breeder can have in his apiary. Nothing has ever been devised that equals its usefulness. I surely could not rear and ship the large number of queens I do every year without using a nursery, or going to the expense of running double the number of nucleus colonies to take the places of the nursery cages. The nursery saves about one half the expense in money and bees, as well as much labor. I not only use the nursery for virgin queens and cell-hatching, but for keeping a supply of fertile queens all through the season.
The nursery illustrated in fig. [7] is of an old pattern, takes but 18 cages and accommodates only as many queens.
Figure 7
FORMING NUCLEI
This part of queen-rearing reminds me of the remark made by Mr. S. M. Locke when he returned to Wenham after spending two or three seasons with D. A. Jones and J. H. Nellis, both of whom were engaged largely in the queen-rearing business.