Many (most?) queen breeders move the cells into incubators the day before emergence. On the day of emergence, they can be laid on their sides. Even so, some prefer to keep them in the natural position. Never jar or shake them.

HANDLING QUEEN-CELLS.

Great care should be taken in handling combs on which cells are built, as when the cells are not sealed the slightest jar may detach the pupa or nymph from its position and separate it from the jelly-food ; and, although the bees may elongate the cell and save the larva for a while, the latter will be permanently injured, and the cells will be destroyed soon after being capped. Any rough or careless handling of cells will result in injury to the maturing queens.

The wings of young queens are not perfectly formed or developed until within twenty-four hours of the time they emerge; hence the importance of the care to which I have referred. The combs on which cells are built should not be handled except when absolutely necessary, and never tip or turn them bottom upward. In no case attempt to shake the bees from such combs, or allow them to stand in the sun, or exposed in the cool air until they become chilled.

In changing combs, having cells on them, from one hive to another, do not brush the bees from them, but let them remain to protect the cells. The bees adhering to such combs are kindly received by other colonies under any circumstances. Cells from which the queens have not emerged should never be exposed to a high temperature as they are almost air-tight, and such exposure almost invariably destroys the imprisoned queen. 

HENRY ALLEY, 1885.

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