82 BKBEDING. 



queens ought to be ready with this kind of egg, 

 about the same period of the season, but how are the 

 facts ? 



I would like to inquire what becomes of the first 

 series of drone eggs, the last of April, or the first of 

 May, when the stocks are poorly supplied with 

 honey, or when a family is small and but little honey 

 through the summer ? No drone brood is matured in 

 these cases. It is ncvfc pretended that the queen has 

 any control over the germination of these eggs, yet 

 somehow she has them ready whenever the situation 

 of the hive will warrant it. Two stocks may have an 

 equal number of bees the first of May; one may have 

 forty pounds of honey, the other four pounds ; the lat- 

 ter cannot afford to rear a drone, while the other will 

 have hundreds. Let two stocks have but four pounds 

 each at any time in summer when honey is scarce, 

 now feed one of them plentifully, and a brood of 

 drones is sure to appear, while the other will not pro- 

 duce one. Whenever, stocks are well stored with 

 honey, and full of bees, the first of May will find 

 drone-cells containing brood. If the flowers continue 

 to yield a full supply, these cells may be examined 

 every week from that period till the first swarm 

 leaves, and I will engage that drone brood may be 

 found in all stages from the egg to maturity ; and the 

 worker brood the same. In twenty -four days after 

 the first swarm leaves, the last drone eggs left by the 

 old queen will be just about matured. When trans- 

 ferring bees from old to new hives, I generally do it 

 about twenty-one or twenty-two days after the first 



