30 A Modern Bee-Farm 



death by the workers when they have one young queen and 

 decide that the rest are not wanted. 



On the sixteenth day from the laying of the egg, the perfect 

 female, or mother bee, 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 mates with a 

 drone when about six days old, and on the second day after 

 begins to deposit eggs in the worker cells only. Contrary to the 

 opinion of some writers, who affirm that a young queen is 

 incapable of producing drones the first year, I have repeatedly 

 had cases in prosperous colonies where a queen not two months 

 old produced drones. Nevertheless, it is the rule for after swarms, 

 having young queens, to build only worker cells the first season, 

 hence no drones can be produced, and this would account for 

 the erroneous conclusion arrived at by the old writers. Of course 

 there is a lesson to be learnt at this point : " When wishing to 

 obtain worker combs without the aid of comb foundation, insert 

 young queens at the head of those stocks used for the purpose." 



But we have to note the 



Condition of a colony nearing the swarming point, 



and therefore must return to the period when the queen cells are 

 being capped over. The old queen now shows signs of restlessness 

 and were she permitted would gladly destroy the inmates of the 

 Royal cells, though only a few days previously she needed but 

 little persuasion on the part of the workers, to deposit the eggs in 

 those very cells, soon to become her own rivals and deadly 

 enemies of each other. It is not always the case, but it sometimes 

 happens that the bees cease to stimulate the old queen to egg- 

 laying at this stage, and hence she is the better able to fly, as her 

 ovaries are much reduced in size. 



The bees have not always time to finish capping all the queen 

 cells started ere the excitement culminates in the issue of the first 

 swarm, the old queen coming with them, seldom first or last, but 

 generally when half of the bees are on the wing. Bees of all ages 



