and its Economic Management. 41 



during the swarming season. It is therefore in view of 

 this colonising instinct that the drones are now brought 

 forward ; this being the first indication that a stock is 

 expecting to swarm at no distant date. If we suppress the 

 production of drones then, by allowing no drone comb, 

 one step is taken towards the prevention of swarming ; 

 it being well known that those colonies having few or no 

 drones are the least inclined to swarm. 



Royal Cells. 



The next and more important step taken by the bees, 

 is to build special cells, either on the surface of the 

 combs, or more often around the edges, something in the 

 shape of an acorn ; indeed in their first stage, they are 

 almost an exact counterpart of the cup. They may remain 

 in this state, as they often do, for many days if the weather 

 is not quite favourable ; but in due course the queen 

 deposits in each an egg when the cell walls are extended 

 downwards, and as soon as the tiny larvae hatch from 

 these they are fed excessively upon what is called 

 " Royal Jelly," a substance much thicker than that given 

 to the common larvae. From the sixth to the seventh day 

 the developing insect has its cell capped over ; it then 

 spins a cocoon which does not completely surround itself, 

 as the abdomen is not covered, and strange though it may 

 seem, it is just there that the cell is torn open, and the 

 immature queen stung to death by the first hatched young 

 queen, when the workers decide that the rest are not 

 wanted. 



On the sixteenth day from the laying of the egg the 

 perfect female, or a bee destined to be the mother of tens 

 of thousands, emerges from the cell, though she is not 

 fulfilling her destiny, until being established at the'?head 

 of the old colony or one or other of the after swarms, she 



