8 BEES FOK PLEASURE AND PROnT. 



till tbey are two or three days old. Yet this queen did not 

 turn out to be a drone breeder ; but, on the contrary, was a 

 very fine and prolific one.* 



It is Huber's opinion that, should the queen not mate by 

 the twenty-first day, the case is hopeless. I should hardly like 

 to fix the limit at twenty-one days, however. The matter un- 

 doubtedly requires very careful observation. 



About two days after mating, the queen ^^dll commence to 

 lay : but should slie fail to mate altogether, she will, after a 

 time, begin laying ; but although these eggs hatch out, they 

 never produce anything but drones. 



Sometimes the young queen may be eaten by a bird while 

 on the wing. The bees will then be deprived of all hope of 

 having eggs laid by a queen bee. In this predicament the 

 great longing for eggs and brood Avill usually produce in time 

 Avhat are known as " Fertile Workers." These are workers 

 which lay eggs; their eggs — like those of unfertile queens — 

 producing only drones, whether deposited in queen or worker 

 cells. It is usually a considerable time — a month or two — 

 before a hive, deprived of its queen and of all hope of getting 

 one, will develop fertile workers. Their presence may be easily 

 ascertained, for they lay in a most unsystematic manner, often 

 placing two or three eggs in one cell, and missing many empty 

 cells altogether. 



A stock with fertile workers will rarely accept a fertile or 

 virgin queen when introduced by either of the caging methods 

 soon to be detailed : they seem quite content with their 

 quasi-queens ; but they will generally accept a virgin queen 

 if given by the method of " direct introduction " (soon to be 

 explained), even though they may possess fertile workers. 

 The safest nnd best plan, however, to get rid of these j^ests 

 is to unite the bees to another stock which has a queen, and 

 then, should the stock be strong enough, divide it again in 

 two weeks' time, giving the bees either a queen or queen-cell, 

 or else a comb containing eggs from which they will rear one. 



Those who wish to make themselves thoroughly acquainted 

 with the natural history of the bee fi'om a very exhaustive 

 and scientific point of view should read " The Honey Bee, its 

 Natural History, Anatomy, and Ph}siology," by T. W. Cowan, 

 price 2s. Qd. 



* I have had similar cases since then. Some virgin queens were sent to me to 

 South Africa from England in 1007. They were nearly three weeks in the post. Most 

 of them arrived in poor condition or dead, hut some others mated and did not in 

 any way prove to be drone breeders. 



