WORK WITH THE QUEEN.—Chapter X. 
If the Queen Be Lost. 
If by any accident the queen should he lost, the bees soon detect her 
absence and at first set up a peculiar cry and buzzing of distress as they 
rush wildly about all over the outside of the hive and out into the grass in 
their effort to find her. If she is not found they immediately start queen-cells 
about some of the youngest larvae present, and thus begin rearing them a 
new queen. In such cases, the queen-cells are liable to be unusually 
numerous and built anywhere on the comb. If the strain is undesirable, 
this would be a good time to improve the stock by giving them a ripe 
queen-cell from a good stock in a spiral wire cell-protector or by introduc- 
ing a laying queen. (See “How to Introduce,” page 60.) 
We have previously stated that it requires 15 or 16 days to rear a 
queen; but when bees start to rear a queen beginning with larvae it is evi- 
dent that a queen may emerge in 11 or even 9 days after the bees deter- 
mine to rear one, although nine days is quite unusual, since the bees nor- 
mally choose quite young larvae from which to rear the queens. 
It often happens that colonies become queenless without the owner’s 
knowledge; and, unless he chances to notice them at the time of the loss, 
their behavior would hardly be striking enough to attract his attention. 
Still, should he happen to see bees standing idly about the entrance, and 
none of them industriously bringing in pollen when the bees from the 
other colonies are doing so, he would have cause to suspect that all was 
not right with the queen. If this condition is observed it is well to open 
the hive and look for eggs and larvae. If plenty of eggs and worker brood 
are found, one may be quite sure the queen is present, and it is not neces- 
sary to look for her. If queen-cells and plenty of good worker brood are 
found they are preparing to swarm. If a few queen-cells and a little scat- 
tering worker and drone brood are found, the bees are probably trying to 
supersede or replace a queen they consider defective. If only drone brood 
is present, the colony has either a drone-layer (see page 58) or laying 
worker (see page 58), which should be disposed of immediately. In such 
eases the drone brood will be found in worker-cells; but it can be detected 
by the elongated cells and more convex cappings as well as the irregular- 
ity of the sealed brood, it being somewhat scattered. If no worker brood 
is found, and the bees commence an unusual buzzing when the hive is 
opened, the colony is, without doubt, queenless. This fact can be definite- 
ly determined by introducing a comb containing eggs and young larvae, 
when, if queenless, queen-cells will at once be started. Of course, colo- 
nies that are without food will cease rearing brood, no matter how pro- 
lific the queen may be, and, as previously mentioned, brood-rearing is nor- 
mally suspended from October to February or -March, except in the ex- 
treme South. 
Supersedure. 
When a queen is old or otherwise defective the bees usually raise an- 
other to take her place, and do it while she is still alive. In fact, the young 
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