THE CONTENTS OF THE HIVE. 25 



the combs. Sometimes, however, they are found on 

 the face of the comb among the worker cells. 



The queen may live three or four years, but it is 

 generally admitted that she is in her prime, and con- 

 sequently of most value to the bee-keeper, in her 

 second season. It is for this reason that some bee- 

 keepers make it a rule not to allow a queen to remain 

 more than two years at the head of a colony, except in 

 rare eases. "When it is considered what an enormously 

 increased number of eggs above the natm-al average 

 the queen may be induced to lay each season, by the 

 management of the bee-keeper, her removal at the 

 close of her second season appears to be a matter of 

 necessity, if the colony is to be kept up to a proper 

 standard of strength. 



Dm-ing manipulations in the summer, a bee-keeper 

 may have the misfortune to crush or drop a queen 

 outside the hive. Deprived of its queen the colony 

 will naturally diminish in numbers, and would ulti- 

 mately die out were it not for the fact that at such 

 times there are eggs in the worker cells. Prom these 

 eggs, as has akeady been stated, if they are deposited 

 in queen cells, queens will be produced. It is, there- 

 fore, only necessary for the bees, upon the loss of a 

 queen, to produce another from an egg in a worker 

 ceU. As the grub will require more space for full 

 development than a worker cell provides, the cell 

 walls, around the egg, or grub, are cut down, and then 

 over the larger space thus given a queen cell is built. 

 The grub then receiving exactly similar treatment to 

 that of a grub in an ordinary queen cell, wiU be con- 

 verted into a perfect queen in from twelve to sixteen 



