192 BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



three things are requisite. The combs must be 

 crowded with bees; they must contain a numerous 

 brood advancing from the egg to maturity ; the bees 

 must be obtaining honey, either by being fed or from 

 flowers. Being crowded with bees in a scarce time 

 of honey is insufficient to bring out the swarm, 

 neither is an abundance sufficient, without the bees 

 and the brood. The period that all these requisites 

 happen together, and remain long enough, will vary 

 with different stocks, and manj' times do not happen 

 at all through the season, with some. 



" These causes then appear to produce a few queen 

 cells, generally begun before the hive is fllled." 



STATE OF QUEEN CELLS WHEN USED. * 



"They are about half finished, when they receive 

 the eggs ; as these eggs hatch into larva, others are 

 begun, and receive eggs at different periods for sev- 

 eral days later. The number of such cells seem to 

 be governed by the prosperity of the bees ; when the 

 family is numerous and the yield of honey abundant, 

 they may amount to twenty, at other times perhaps 

 not more than two or three ; although several such 

 cells may remain empty. I have already said that a 

 failure (or even a partial one,) in the yield of honey 

 at any time from the depositing of the royal eggs till 

 the sealing of the cells (which is about ten days), 

 would be likely to bring about their destruction. 

 Even after being sealed, I have found a few iustances 

 where they were destroyed." 



