56 THE COTTAGE AND FARM BEE KEEPER. 



this point are not very clear; at least, he gives us to suppose, that at 

 the end of fourteen or sixteen days, the hive ■will be r,eady for forcing 

 the second swarm, all the brood, with the exception, perhaps, of a few 

 drones, having been hatched out. Now, if the old queen was laying 

 up to the very eve of her departure from the hive, there will still be 

 left unhatehed all the brood from the eggs that were laid during the 

 five or seven days last previous to her expulsion, whether drone or 

 worker*; that is, from 1,000 to 5,000 bees, according to the size of the 

 hive and the state of the season — a number in either case too consid- 

 erable to be lost. Moreover, if the young queen had to be reared 

 artificially, she would probably not have issued from her cell by this 

 time ; and at least twenty days ought, I think, to be allowed for her 

 to gain the necessary strength before her expulsion in turn. On the 

 other hand, if, (as is much to be desired) the young queen were ready 

 to leave her cell shortly after the removal of the old mother, there is 

 every probability of a still greater breadth of comb being occupied with 

 eggs laid by her, which the bee master will be equally loath to destroy. 

 For these reasons, and for others far more weighty, (see what I have 

 said on this point in Chapter V,) I do not advise the forcing or suffer- 

 ing the issue of any second swarm at all. Instead thereof, I would 

 recommend that the old hive, having a young queen, be kept as it is 

 for winter stock. In this case, it will be treated in a precisely similar 

 manner to that described for the management of his old hives by the 

 cottager, (see Chapter V). Should a cast issue naturally, for instance, 

 (which is not very likely,) it should be returned at once, after exci- 

 sion of all the royal cells that can be gtit at. Dr. Scudamore gives an 

 additional reason for his recommendation of artificial cast-forcing, 

 namely, that the plunder of the old hive at this time would put the bee 

 master in possession of an early harvest at the best season of the year. 

 But the quantity of honey gained will be but a poor compensation for 

 the expenditure of honey by the bees in the construction of fresh 

 comb in a new hive, which might otherwise be stored away in large 

 abundance against the approach of winter in the old one, thus forming 

 a good and useful stock for another year, while the honey itself, being 

 stored in old comb, would be but of little comparative value to the 



* And there are always more worker than drone eggs. It is a fallacy to suppose that the 

 queen lays drone eggs exclusively, (or even principally,) at any period of the year. 



