4 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. 



cells, lids are placed on them — whicli is teclinically termed 

 "sealing them up." What takes place at the birth of 

 queens ■will be explained when we come to the chapter on 

 swarming. 



Feiiilisation of Queens. 



This a very important affair — so important that a bee- 

 keeper should know all he can about it ; when and where 

 it takes place, and what happens when it never takes 

 place at all. Queens are mated or take the drone when 

 they are very young — viz., from two to ten or twelve days 

 old. If they are not mated before they are twelve days 

 old, they are worthless for breeding purposes, and worth- 

 less for every purpose save that of keeping the bees 

 together tUl they are worn out by labour or old age. 



When we consider the importance of the fertilisation 

 of queens, the number of drones in a hive is not to be 

 wondered at, especially when we consider that copula- 

 tion never takes place inside a hive. If the weather be 

 unfavourable for ten days after the birth of a queen, she 

 is not mated. Some five-and-twenty years ago we caused 

 a hive to rear a queen in the month of September, after 

 all its drones had been killed. This was done with a 

 view to ascertain how many days she left her hive to find 

 a companion. The mouth of the hive was shut, so that 

 every bee going out had to pass through a narrow tube, 

 projecting two or three inches, before it took wing. 

 Though the way out was plain and easy, neither the 

 queen nor bees ever found their way back through the 

 tube. For nine days the queen came through the tube, 

 though the weather was rather showery at the time, and 

 was invariably found outside the hive about four o'clock 

 P.M., either nestled up in a cluster of bees near the door, 

 or trying to find an entrance into the hive. Once she 

 came home and alighted on the flight-board in our pre- 



