136 QUEENS. 
give are not sufficient to sustain the system, let it fall; I 
want it upheld by merits of its own, or not at all. 
“How is it with natural swarms ? Ten or fifteen cells 
are often made where a swarm has issued. The first are 
made under the impulse of 
the swarming fever. If the 
swarm issues before any are 
sealed over, very many will 
FSiss| be started at once. Some 
: es) az of them, however, after the 
Za swarm has left, receive much 
= less attention than the first 
Fig. 60.—QUEEN NURSERY. ones did. If want of atten- 
tion makes an inferior queen in case of artificial rearing, 
can any one say why the same causes will not produce the 
same results here? We are not likely to ascertain for a 
certainty, as all except two or three of the first are de- 
stroyed. But when we come to imitate natural swarming, 
in a sense, by removing a queen from a full stock, and 
claim better queens in consequence, we can test it some- 
what. We find in the attempts to replace the mother, a 
still greater diversity in the time of starting cells. It is 
reported that some queens will hatch in nine days, some 
in ten, others sixteen and eighteen, and at all intermediate 
times. Those hatching under ten days are claimed to 
be deficient in development, and short-lived. I never had 
any nine-day queens, and cannot say. Those that are 
slow to mature are quite apt to be deficient. Ido not 
say that some such do not make beautiful queens, but- the 
average is no better than ten-day queens. 
“‘ When first deprived of the mother, the bees make 
cells over larva, without seeming to care much for a con- 
venient place ; after the first impulse is over, they find a 
good place occasionally, and commence other cells, but 
having a large number already, they work as if they cared 
little for these last. They seem to nurse such for want of 
