12 FARMERS' BULLETIN, No. 129. 



The Normal Brood Nest. 



Whea making an examination of the brood from a normal brood nest at 

 the time favourable to brood raising, the apiarist should be able to detect 

 sealed brood, larvas, and eggs. Three days after the queen lays the egg it 

 hatches into a small grub or larva, the latter growing very rapidly. On 

 the ninth day the worker bees cap the cells, and on about the twenty-first 

 day the young bee will nip her way out of the cell. 



To detect eggs in the cells it is advisable to turn the comb to a position 

 where light will show down the cells, when a tiny white egg will be discerned 

 adhering to the bottom of the cell. The very young larva is not easy to detect 

 unless the light is good. Just after hatching they appear as a very small 

 white grub, usually surrounded by a milky fluid, which is really the chyle 

 food supplied by the nurse bees. 



The cappings on the sealed brood should appear as Just a slight oval from 

 the level of the cells containing larvse or normal cells in a straight brood 

 comb. Sometimes duiing warm weather the bees do not completely cap the 

 brood, and the head of the immature bees can be seen through the openings. 

 This condition is perfectly healthy. 



Soms Abnormal Conditions. 



Tlie significance attached to the following conditions of the brood nests 

 may be regarded as applicable to those periods when the other colonies are 

 raising broods normally. 



The apiarist wiU sometimes And eggs in the cells, but no larvse or sealed 

 brood. He has the knowledge that when last examined the colony had 

 normal brood, so that it would be evident in this case that the queen has 

 died — probably killed by some accident during manipulation— and that the 

 eggs in the cells have been laid by a young queen that has been raised by 

 the bees after the loss of their mother. If it were a case of supersedure or 

 swarming, sealed brood would be usually found. 



Sealed brood and queen cells, without larv;e or eggs, denotes that the 

 colony has lost its queen and is preparing to raise another. In this case the 

 apiarist could destroy the cells and introduce a ripa selected queen cell or a 

 queen. In case neither cell nor queen is on hand, destroy any cells that have 

 a small appearance, just leaving two or three selected ones. 



When eggs, larva;, sealed brood and queen cells are all prespnt, the 

 apiarist will have to consider the conditions and number of queen cells being 

 raised. For instance, if there are eight or nine pells and the colony is in a 

 populous condition, then the state denotes preparation for swarming. If 

 only about two cells are noticed, the colony is about to supersede its queen. 

 In the latter case examination may discover that the queen is unsatisfactory 

 or too old to do satisfactory work. In the case of supersedure, if the 

 breeding is unsatisfactory the cells may be destroyed and replaced with a 

 selected cell, but apart from this it is best to allow the supersedure to go on. 

 Do not introduce a queen to a colony that is endeavouring to supersede. 



Absence of brood in a hive denotes that it has either no queen or 'a young 

 queen that has not started to lay. There is no need to make a search for the 

 queen in this case. Place a frame of brood containing some eggs and larvse 

 and inspect in about five days time ; then, it a young queen is in the hive, 

 the bees will have no queen cells started. If, on the other hand, there is no 

 queen the cells will be noticed. If a queen or an advanced cell raised under 

 better conditions is on hand, it could be introduced. In such case it would 

 be advisable to first destroy the cells that have been started. 



