74 , BEEEDING. 



and but verj few advancing from that stage towaids 

 maturity. I have thus found it in the fall, in July, 

 and sometimes the first of June, or at any time when 

 maturing the brood would be likely to exhaust their 

 stores, to endanger the family's supply. Now, instead 

 of the fertility of the queen being greater in spring 

 and first of summer than at other' times, (as we are 

 often told), I would suggest the probability that a 

 greater abundance of food at this season, and a greater 

 number of empty cells, may be the reason of the greater 

 number of bees matured. 



WHEN DRONES ARE REARED. 



Whenever the hive is well supplied with honey, and 

 plenty of bees, a portion of eggs are deposited in the 

 drone-cells, which three or four days more are neces- 

 sary to mature than the worker. 



WHEN QUEENS ARE REARED. 



Also, when the combs become crowded with bees, 

 and honey plenty, the preparations for young queens 

 commence: as the first step towards swarming, 

 from one to twenty royal cells are begun ; when 

 about half completed, the queen (if all continues fa- 

 vorable) will deposit eggs in them, these will be glued 

 fast by one end like those for the workers ; there is no 

 doubt but they are precisely the same kind of eggs 

 that produce other bees. "When hatched, the little 

 worm will be supplied with a superabundance of food ; 

 at least, it appears so from the fact, that a few times 

 I have found a quantity remaining in the cell after the 



