Allen wrote: >* The bees must be of a sort that will start cells > readily and maintain them and >* There must be lots of young bees Allen's points are all excellent, but the two cited were a turning point for me. Early on, under good conditions, trying to get some nucs and splits of what turned out to be good bees to thrive was so discouraging I almost despaired of succeeding with bees. Later this operation became easy despite worse conditions. The difference was some prolific bees so poor at making honey that I almost requeened them before realizing their value as nurses. They cling so tenaciously to their brood that inspection is difficult. Putting a frame with young larvae from desired stock in the midst of a few frames of brood of such bees, eliminating their own queen cells, and doing everything that Allen stated, makes nice queens. Bill Morong