30 PLEASUBABLE BEE-KEEPING. 



then eggs — unfertilised — are placed in the larger 

 horizontal or drone cells from which issue drones in 

 twenty-five days. 



Later on, as the population of the hive gradually 

 increases, and there is no more room for workers or 

 drones, cells shaped somewhat like an acorn are built 

 on the lower edges of the combs, and in these the 

 queen deposits eggs exactly like those placed in the 

 worker cells ; but in consequence of the grub being 

 supplied with a food richer in the nitrogenous element 

 contained in pollen, and greater in quantity than that 

 supplied to the worker grubs, and also because the 

 cell gives more space for full development of the 

 organs, in sixteen days a perfect queen issues. 



Swarming. 



When, for want of room, the bees form queen cells 

 it will not be many days before a part of the population 

 of the hive leaves for a new home. This exodus is 

 known as swarming, and it usually takes place as soon 

 as the new queen cells are sealed over. When the bees 

 leave the hive they are accompanied by the queen, and 

 they fly about in the air until some begin to settle on 

 the branch of a tree or elsewhere. In a very short 

 time a large cluster is formed, which should be dis- 

 lodged and placed where it is to stand for the rest of 

 the season. 



Hiving the swarm is not a difficult operation, unless 

 the bees, instead of forming, as they usually do, a 

 large pear-shaped cluster hanging from the branch of 

 a tree, spread themselves round the trunk, or choose 

 some other place from which they cannot easily be 



