"When the young queen has left the cell, she is transferred after forty-eight hours, or even earlier, into a cellar or some other dark and cool place. If the drones, by one of which the impregnation is to be accomplished, are not among the colony of the queen, they also must of course be inserted. We now wait for a sunny day free from wind, when the thermometer in the shade is at least 17° above zero [70° Fahr.]; the bees in question, towards five in the afternoon, _when drones have completely ceased from flight_, are fetched out of their prison, and set up in any spot, if possible where isolated and with the flight-hole exposed to the sun; then, by means of a small syringe or in any other way, direct some liquid honey into the flight-hole. In a minute or two the bees will sport in numbers in the front, and it will not be long before the queen and drones also fly out. At evening the colony is brought back into custody, and the manœuvre is repeated till the young queen has commenced laying, or till her accomplished fructification is made sure by expansion of the abdomen, or, upon return from a flight, by having the more or less torn-off drone penis upon her extremity." Some essential particulars are not here specified, but we interpret the instructions to refer to a _nucleus_ hive in which the queen is hatched with several workers, but with no drones present except those specially introduced. By choosing these, also from their birth, from the progeny of a different queen from the mother of the one in the nucleus, all may apparently be made as straightforward as could be desired. Even Von Berlepsch, who is no friend to the Italians, praises this method as a "beautiful discovery:" it dates only from 1867. § X. GENERAL HINTS ON FRAME HIVES. It may not unnaturally be asked by some, Why all this trouble about frame hives? No one, however, who has carefully read the previous sections of this chapter, and especially those on "Artificial Swarming" and "Queen-Rearing," can require any further answer to such question. Briefly, frame hives stand immeasurably above others from the full command over the bees which they afford. The facility of inspection for ascertaining the strength of the colony or the stock of its honey, or for incidental purposes, such as the detection of disease and the extirpation of enemies such as the bee-moth, and again the facilities provided for giving ventilation or for contracting the dimensions to suit a small population, are among the minor but still great advantages which the use of these hives secures. In skilful hands these advantages may be used successfully; though in the hands of the unpractised and unskilful the contrary may be the result.