THE GENESIS OF THE QUEEN 95 



time, may be upset — whether'permanently, and for 

 the ultimate advantage of honey-making, time 

 alone can tell. 



A single queen, when young and vigorous and 

 of good blood, is able to keep an entire hive filled 

 with brood throughout the short honey-gathering 

 season. The brood-nest of a modern frame-bar 

 hive has a comb-surface of over 2,000 square 

 inches, giving about 50,000 cells available for the 

 breeding of young worker-bees. This represents, 

 at times of greatest prosperity, an enormous 

 floating population ; but if several queens can 

 be permanently established in one hive, and the 

 hives enlarged to permit each her fullest scope, 

 the figures will soon begin to stretch out into 

 infinity. Two facts are well known to experienced 

 bee-keepers — that a large stock gathers more 

 honey than two small stocks containing between 

 them the same number of individuals ; and that, 

 when the honey-crop is in full yield, there are 

 seldom enough bees to harvest it. The whole art 

 of latter-day bee-keeping consists in bringing up 

 the numerical strength of each colony to its fullest 

 in time for the great main nectar-flow. Yet, in a 

 good district and in a good season, when huge 

 areas of clover or sainfoin come into full blossom 

 at the same time, and the nectar must be gathered 

 or lost within the space of a fortnight or so, the 

 most populous apiary is seldom equal to the task. 

 Probably, in exceptional seasons, half the English 



