388 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



destroy the queeu-cells and give up swarming until a more propi- 

 tious time. But post-constructed cells are built as a matter of 

 necessity; the bees feel that a queen must be reared or the colony 

 will cease to be, so they proceed, no matter what the weather or 

 harvest may be. 



There is another reason why all the queens reared, because the 

 bees are forced to rear them, are not as good as when there is no 

 necessity in the case. LVs already said, for the purpose of rearing a 

 successor when a queen is lost, the bees select a larva sufficiently 

 young. Although only one queen is needed, several are started, so 

 as to make the matter more sure. Not content with that, they con- 

 tinue to start queen-cells later on, even when no larvae sufficiently 

 young for the purpose are present, and queens will be reared from 

 larvae so old that they will »eem part queen and part worker. In- 

 deed, so desperate are the bees as to rearing a queen,. that if they 

 have nothing but drone brood they will try to rear a queen from 

 a drone larva. Of couse, the poor fellow can be nothing but a drone, 

 no matter how royally fed, and, generally, if not always, he dies in 

 the cell. 



While it is true that as a whole queens from post-constructed cells 

 are inferior, it still remains true that some of such queens may 

 be as good as the best. Let a queen be removed from a colony at 

 a time when other colonies are swarming freely, and if that colony 

 is left to itself there is no reason why it will not rear as good a 

 queen as the verj^ best it would have reared if the queen had not 

 been removed and the colony had swarmed. The queen-cells first 

 started will be all right, and as they will be first to mature there 

 is no danger that the colony will have a queen from the poor trash 

 started later on. 



It is very important that this matter be fully understood; if 

 queens are forced to be reared by unqueening a colony at a time 

 when weather and harvest are not favorable, you need expect no 

 good queens, aijd under the most favorable circumstances you can 

 expect nothing but poor queens from larvae that were too old when 

 selected; also, you may have the best of queens reared from proper 

 larvae under proper conditions. 



STARTING QUEEN-CELLS IN QUEENLESS COLONIES. 



Understanding thoroughly this matter of post-constructed cells, 

 it is easy to see that you may secure a lot of queen-cells by simply 

 removing a queen from its colony. Do not think of beginning this 

 too early in the season. It is time enough when bees begin to 

 Bwarm. Neither should it be done after the harvest is over. You 

 may, however, create an artificial harvest after the clover harvest 



