CHAPTER XIII, 



QUEENS AND QUEEN-CELLS 



THE importance of young queens in an apiary 

 cannot be over-estimated. They are a necessity 

 if the utmost profit is to be obtained from the 

 pursuit, and yet no phase of bee-keeping has less 

 attention paid to it in the majority of cases. 

 Why, the queen is so important is obvious, but 

 what is not generally known is that queens, like 

 most other things, deteriorate as they get older, 

 until they reach a stage when they are no longer 

 profitable. A queen is at her best in the second 

 season, and she will probably do well in her 

 third, but after then it is not advisable to retain 

 her. Thus, then, theoretically we ought to renew 

 our queens at the end of every second season or 

 thereabouts, but personally I am no advocate of 

 such an' arbitrary system. While a queen con- 

 tinues to do well I should retain her to the third 

 season, but I should have a younger queen ready 

 to depose her if she failed before that time. 



When a queen is past her prime the bees will 

 depose her themselves, first building a series of 

 cells called supersedure cells, and raising a young 

 queen. The bees, however, may drive this work 



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