108 THE PEACTICaL BEE GUIDE. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

 BREEDING. 



186. Breeding begins. — Breeding in the hive generally 

 begins towards the end of January (8), perhaps somewhat 

 earlier in a mild season. Moving quite slowly upon the centre 

 combs, the queen, examining the cells and inserting her 

 abdomen, deposits her eggs upon the bases — one egg in each 

 cell, confining herself at first to a small area, and increasing 

 the areas as the season advances ; passing from comb to 

 comb, and returning to the cells according as they become 

 vacant through the hatching of the young bees. If, on account 

 of the smallness of the cluster, or the infirmity of the queen, 

 more than one egg be laid in each cell, the workers will 

 generally remove the superfluous eggs. 



187. " Congestion " to be guarded against. — A comb com- 

 pletely filling a standard frame contains 104 superficial square 

 inches on each side, or 208 superficial square inches in all. 

 Worker cells measure 27 to 29 to the square inch (66). Taking 

 them as 28 to the square inch, we have 5,824 worker cells in 

 the comb of a standard frame. Given sufficient room and 

 favourable circumstances, a queen in her prime, laying at the 

 rate of 3,000 eggs per day (4), or go, 000 eggs per month, might 

 occupy with eggs more than half of such a comb per day ; 

 and nearly 16 complete combs per month. But the eggs 

 deposited on the first day of the period will hatch out, and the 

 cells become vacant, on the 22nd day (204). Assuming that 

 the queen returns always to the cells as soon as they become 

 vacant, she might, at the rate of 3,000 eggs per clay, have filled 

 iij complete combs in the twenty-two days before she returns 

 to the former cells. From which calculation it will be seen 

 that, in the height of the season, and with a queen in her prime, 

 the increase of the colony will be very rapid ; and that, in a 

 hive containing no more than 10 or 11 standard frames, and 

 with from 30,000 to 50,000 bees depositing honey in the cells, 

 the queen may very quickly find herself hampered for room, 

 and that " congestion " supervene which produces the " swarm- 

 ing fever " (216). It follows that, where the largest possible 

 harvest of honey is desired in preference to an increase in the 

 number of colonies by natural swarming, the bee-keeper must 



