her confinement. Queens that seem bent on departing to
the woods, may be confined in the same way, until the colony has given
up all thoughts of forsaking its hive. A small paste-board box with
suitable holes, or a wooden match-box thoroughly scalded, I have found
to answer a very good purpose.

I shall here describe what may be called a _Queen Nursery_ which I have
contrived to aid those who are engaged in the rapid multiplication of
colonies by artificial means. A solid block about an inch and a quarter
thick, is substituted for one of my frames; holes, about one and a half
inches in diameter, are bored through it, and covered on both sides,
with gauze wire slides; the wire ought to be such as will allow a
common bee to pass through, but should be too small to permit a queen to
do the same. Any kind of perforated cover may be made to answer the same
purpose as the gauze wire. If a number of sealed queens are on hand, and
there is danger that some may hatch, and destroy the others, before the
Apiarian can make use of them in forming artificial swarms, he may very
carefully cut out the combs containing them, and place them each in a
separate cradle! The bees having access to them, will give them proper
attention, and as soon as they are hatched, will supply them with food,
and thus they will always be on hand for use when they are needed. This
Nursery must of course, be established in a hive which has no mature
queen, or it will quickly be transformed into a slaughter house by the
bees. I have not yet tested this plan so thoroughly as to be _certain_
that it will succeed; and I know so well the immense difference between
theoretical conjectures and practical results, that I consider nothing
in the bee line, or indeed in any other line, as established, until it
has been submitted to the most rigorous demonstrations, and has
triumphantly passed from the mere regions of the brain to those of
actual fact. A theory on any subject may seem so plausible as almost to
amount to a positive demonstration, and yet when put to the working
test, it is often found to be encumbered by some unforeseen difficulty,
which speedily convinces even its sanguine projector, that it has no
practical value. Nine things out of ten may work to a charm, and yet the
tenth may be so connected with the other nine, that its failure renders
their success of no account. When I first used this Nursery, I did not
give the bees access to it, and I found that