38 QUEEN-REARING IN ENGLAND. 



wind, and unless it is very warm, the sun must be shining 

 without much intermission. This combination of weather 

 conditions is rare in many parts of Britain, and consequently 

 the majority of queens are not mated until about nine or ten 

 days after emerging, when it seems they venture to take 

 flight in less favourable weather and also are more attractive 

 to the drones. But I have never known a queen to get mated 

 on a day on which the temperature between ii a.m. and 

 3 p.m. was less than 62 degrees, and mating has only taken 

 place at this temperature when the air was perfectly still and 

 sunshine bright and continuous.* When the British Isles 

 are under the influence of depressions advancing from the 

 Atlantic in quick succession, weather sufficiently good for 

 mating may not come for two or three weeks, especially 

 in the north and west and exposed places on the south coast ; 

 while on the east coast several days' delay is often caused 

 b^' a cool nnticyclonic bTceze from the North Sea. 



Abundance of drones and a good honey flow also favour 

 (|uick mating, but manv cases of failure to get mated that 

 are aM:ribed to lack of drones are really due to insufficiently 

 favourable weather conditions for, when the weather is per- 

 fect, drones will discover queens at a great distance from 

 their hives. When, however, drones are scarce, as in April 

 and September, the weather must be \erv fine indeed to 

 ensure mating. 



The workers grow to dislike a queen that flies out day 

 after day without succeeding in getting fertilised, a state 

 of affairs that takes place during a spell of weather that 

 approaches, but does not quite reach, the standard requisite 

 for mating, and they are very likely to pull her about and 

 to tear her already weather-beaten wings, ultimately damag- 

 ing them to such an extent that she can fly no more, and then 

 they often kill ln'r and turn her out. It is better that the 

 weather, while bad, should be too bad for her to fly. But 

 she cannot wait indefinitelv ; for, if sire fails to get fertilised 

 within a certain jieriod, she will commence to lay eggs which 

 will produce drones only, and she will lay no others during 

 the rest of her life. 



• These data are for British Goldens. Whether British Black queens 

 would be hardier I cannot say. 



