BBEBDINQ. 113 



1B5. Controlling Drone Rearing — The rearing- of drones 

 may be limited by the use of foundation prepared for worker 

 brood, and may be encouraged by the use of drone-brood 

 foundation (113). It will, however, be found that, except in 

 the case of a new swarm, if the former pattern be cut, or 

 broken, or supplied in the frames as " starters " instead of 

 in full sheets, drone cells will be attached to it in large 

 numbers <110). To avoid the extravagant rearing of drones, 

 worker foundation is used in full sheets in all the frames of 

 the brood nest, and the sheets are wired into the frames (117) 

 so that they may not easily become sagged, or broken in the 

 hive or extractor. 



196. Queen Cells — At the approach of the swarming season, 

 if the queen and the rapidly increasing population of the hive 

 become pressed for room ; at any time when a colony has been 

 deprived of its queen ; or when the bees desire to supplant an 

 old queen whose fertility has ceased, queen cells are started 

 on the combs (T1). These are distinguished from all other 

 cells by the material of which they are made, and by their 

 size, shape, and position (Fig. 14, A, B, C, page 36). 

 They are constructed of a mixture of wax and pollen ; 

 are about i" long x J." in diameter, are in shape like an acorn, 

 and they hang mouth downwards on the combs. The bees 

 construct queen cells on the face of a comb by breaking down 

 the cells immediately surrounding those containing the eggs 

 from which queens are to be reared. At other times queen 

 cells are made on the sides, or the bottoms of the combs ; and, 

 when the queen does not deposit eggs in them, bees have 

 been known to carry eggs to them from other cells, lengthen- 

 ing the queen cells as the process of feeding the grui) proceeds. 

 The number of queen cells constructed by a colony oi native, 

 or black bees may vary from two to ten or twelve. Other races 

 frequently exceed those figures. Syrian bees (50) will some- 

 times provide as many as thirty queen cells on one comb, 

 and it is said that more than seventy queen cells have been 

 found in one colony of Syrians. The cells are not all started 

 on the same day, the object being to have the young queens 

 hatch out in succession. In a case of emergency, arising 

 when a colony has been deprived of its queen, if the bees have 

 worker eggs available, or larvse not more than three days old, 

 i.e., not already weaned (190), they will construct a queen cell 

 around the selected egg or larva. Should they have no worker 

 egg, or larva under four days old, they will, in a desperate 

 effort to retrieve disaster, form queen cells here and there at 

 random, and even around drone larvae. The latter cells, which 

 may be distinguished from regular queen cells by their smooth 

 walls (Fig. 14, G, page 36) cannot, of course, produce anything 



