queenless about two or three days beforehand, and when mature the cells inserted one each in these. In cutting out the cell a small piece of comb, triangular shaped, 1½ to 2 inches long and about 1½ inches broad at the top, is to be left attached to it whenever practicable, since it will then be easy to insert it in one of the combs of the queenless colony or nucleus, by cutting out a corresponding triangular piece. Fig. 54 shows a queen cell inserted in a brood comb. It is safest not to cut the cells out until they are within twenty-four to forty-eight hours of their full maturity. In case a nucleus or colony has not been queenless long enough to make it ready to accept a queen cell, the latter may be placed in a cell protector made of wire cloth or of a spiral coil of wire and then inserted between the central combs of the hive. The lower end only of the protector is open, so that the upper portion of the cell--the part easily bitten open by the workers--is wholly covered. Queen nurseries on the general plan devised many years ago by Dr. Jewell Davis, of Illinois, are used to hold surplus maturing cells and the young queens, after emerging, for which colonies or nuclei are not ready at once. These nurseries consist of compartments about 1½ inches square, made of wood and wire cloth, and so arranged that they may be suspended in the center of a colony of bees, a frame being filled with them for this purpose. Each compartment contains a bit of soft candy to sustain the life of the queen in case the bees fail to feed her. Spiral coils of wire somewhat longer than those used as queen-cell protectors have been arranged with a metal cup for food, so that, in principle, they are the same as the compartments of the Davis queen nurseries and are used for the same purpose.