THOUSAND ANSWERS 197 



Queenlessness. — Q. What is the best sign of a queenless col- 

 ony in the spring? 



A. The best sign is to find no brood present when all other 

 colonies have started brood. Even by looking at the outside, you 

 may be suspicious if you find the. bees of a colony carrying no 

 pollen, or very little pellets, when other colonies are carrying 

 loads of it. 



Q. Will queenless bees store honey? 



A. Yes, indeed. 



Q. I have two colonies that I know are queenless, and still 

 they are busy carrying in pollen. Some say they will not do this 

 when they have no queen. Is this so. If so, why do these carry 

 pollen ? 



A. Queenless bees do carry pollen; but after they have been 

 queenless for a time they have a surplus of pollen on hand and 

 then they carry less pollen and smaller loads. 



Q. When a colony becomes queenless, what is the best way 

 to requeen; give it a sealed queen-cell or a frame of brood, or 

 what would you do ? 



A. A cell just ready to hatch will gain about 12 days over 

 giving a frame of brood, and a laying queen will be about 10 days 

 better still, so if I hadn't the laying queen I would prefer the cell 

 to the frame of brood. If it was very early in the season, I would 

 unite with a weak colony having a good queen, rather than give 

 a frame of brood. 



Q. I have a fine 10-frame hive with plenty of stores and of bees 

 — but queenless. I dare not order a queen from the South, as a 

 cold snap would kill her. If a frame of brood from another hive 

 is introduced and a queen is reared, there are no drones for her 

 to mate with. Laying workers may develop at any time. But I 

 do hate to lose that colony. What would you do? (March. 

 Missouri.) 



A. You are wise in thinking it best not to rear queens too 

 early. Aside from the lack of drones, it is true that queens reared 

 much before the time of swarming, and if drones are present, 

 generally turn out to be so poor that they are often worse than 

 none. All the same, you can give the colony one or two frames of 

 brood from some other colony, with a goodly proportion of eggs 

 and unsealed larvae. Then within ten days kill all queen-cells 

 started on this brood, and at the same time give a frame or two 

 of fresh brood every ten days until conditions are right for rear- 

 ing a queen, but allowing no young queen to emerge until then. 

 You will do three things : You will keep up the courage of the 



