QUEEN-REARING IN ENGLAND. 37 



reach home. Having recovered somewhat, she takes wing 

 and flies off to the hive. Here the bees may already be 

 beginning to show signs of alarm at her long absence, 

 working themsehes up into a state of excitement, running 

 in and out of the entrance humming and emitting the 

 alluring scent and also taking short flights. The unwonted 

 stir helps to guide the queen to the hive. She hovers 

 about for a few seconds among the excited bees, and then, 

 having assured herself that the hive is her own, she makes 

 a dash for the entrance and, without tarrying, hurries inside. 



The first few hours after fertilisation are a critical period 

 in the life of the queen. She is restless and the workers are 

 excited and seem uncertain how to treat her. The remains 

 of the drone organs which hang as an appendage from her 

 tail seemj to irritate them, and they follow her and try to 

 catch hold of it. They may even show hostility to the queen 

 herself, and in extreme cases, which occur chiefly in late 

 summer when food is getting scarce and robbers are inclined 

 to be troublesome, they will actually ball her and even sting 

 her. Sometimes the stings prove fatal, but more often they 

 cause paralysis of one or more of the legs. If it is one of 

 the hind legs that is paralysed the queen is useless and 

 should be killed, but if it is one of the middle or fore legs, 

 she will not be any the worse and the paralysed leg will in 

 time wither and drop off. When the queen is being attacked 

 there is generally a good deal of running out and flying about 

 the entrance, and should this be noticed it is best to open 

 the hive and place the queen in a candv introducing cage 

 (see page 47) with the tin slide drawn so that the bees can 

 liberate her in about 24 hours by eating away the candy. 

 Similar symptoms are shown if the queen is lost. 



The appendage, if present, dries up and disappears, the 

 abdomen swells, and on the second day after mating pro- 

 vided honey is coming in and it is not too late in the season, 

 the queen begins laying. A queen mated in September may 

 not begin laying for a week or more, or even until the spring, 

 but one can generally coax her to lay by making the colony 

 stronger by uniting and by regular feeding. 



For a queen to get mated as early as the sixth or seventh 

 day after emerging from the cell, the temperature must 

 approach or exceed 70 degrees, there must be little or no 



