74 
BREEDING. 
and but very few advancing from that stage towards 
maturity. I have thus found it in the fall, in July, 
and sometimes the first of June, or at any time when 
maturing the brood would be likely to exhaust their 
stores, to endanger the family’s supply. Now, instead 
of the fertility of the queen being greater in spring 
and first of summer than at other times, (as we are 
often told), I would suggest the probability that a 
greater abundance of food at this season, and a greater 
number of empty cells, may be the reason of the greater 
number of bees matured. 
WHEN DRONES ARE REARED. 
Whenever the hive is well supplied with honey, and 
plenty of bees, a portion of eggs are deposited in the 
drone-cells, which three or four days more are neces- 
sary to mature than the worker. 
WHEN QUEENS ARE REARED. 
Also, when the combs become crowded with bees, 
and honey plenty, the preparations for young queens 
commence: as the first step towards swarming, 
from one to twenty roj'al cells are begun ; when 
about half completed, the queen (if all continues fa- 
vorable) will deposit eggs in them, these will be glued 
fast by one end like those for the workers ; there is no 
doubt but they are precisely the same kind of eggs 
that produce other bees. When hatched, the little 
worm will be supplied with a superabundance of food; 
at least, it appears so from the fact, that a few times 
I have found a quantity remaining in the cell after the 
