rrONEY BEES. 2S 



mother of the entire family, and without a queen 

 no swarm of bees can long exjst. 



The time taken to perfect the three different kinds 

 of bees — queen, worker and drone — varies slightly. 

 The queen will mature in about sixteen days from 

 the time the egg is deposited in the cell. The 

 drone and worker each in about twenty days. This 

 time is subject to some variation, governed by the 

 weather, and number of bees in the hive, which 

 causes the temperature of the hive to be greater or 

 less. A high temperature will forward, while a 

 low temperature will retard, the maturing of tbe 

 brood. 



Swarms with healthy prolific queens increase 

 rapidly through the spring and summer. The 

 queen at this season will deposit from one thousand 

 to fifteen hundred eggs per day. Some writers 

 estimate higher. To secure so large a number of 

 eggs, and consequent increase of bees, we must 

 have healthy prolific queens to start with, and offer 

 every available facility to encourage the desired in- 

 crease. How to do this successfully, is shown fur- 

 ther on. 



If we wish to secure a good harvest of honey, we 

 must have the bees to collect it, and we must have 

 them at the proper time, viz. : when the harvest 

 is ready. To do this, we must encourage breeding 

 to the utmost in early spring. 



Early in the spring the queen enlarges the circle 

 containing the brood ; perhaps, if the stock was 

 very strong, and everythmg favorable, she laid a 

 few eggs in one or two combs near the centre of the 



