and its Economic Management. 259 



CHAPTER XVI. 

 QUEEN REARING. 



IT should be understood that when a colony is deprived 

 ol its queen the bees are soon aware of the loss, and 

 forthwith special cells are constructed upon larvae 

 that may be from one to three or four days old but very 

 seldom are eggs selected in such a case of emergency. In 

 due time a queen is hatched from one of such cells, 

 and though she may have enjoyed the usual quantity of 

 royal jelly, it frequently happens that the first to emerge 

 from her cradle is one that is not well developed, as the 

 oldest larvae would naturally come soonest to maturity. 

 Thus those which had been selected from the egg, or one 

 or two days after hatching therefrom, and would have 

 received only the royal food from the first day of their 

 existence, and consequently are destined to be perfect 

 in formation, are sacrificed to a dwarfed and ill-formed 

 queen. 



As already shewn, only one of the queens is reserved, 

 though several may be raised. There are two points, 

 therefore, of importance to the bee-keeper who wishes to 

 obtain a number of queens. The colony that is to pro- 

 duce them must either be made queenless, or be main- 



