190 
SUMMER. 
and remain long enough, will vary with different 
stocks, and many times do not happen at all through 
the season, with some. 
These causes then appear to produce a few queen-cells, 
generally begun before the hive is filled, (sometimes 
when only half full, but usually remain as rudiments 
till the next year, when the foregoing conditions of 
the stock may require their use). 
STATE OF QUEEN’S CELL WHEN USED. 
They are about half finished, when they receive the 
eggs ; as these eggs hatch into larvae, others are begun, 
and receive eggs at different periods for several days 
later. The number of such cells seem to be governed 
by the prosperity of the bees ; when the family is nu- 
merous, and the yield of honey abundant, they may 
amount to twenty, at other times perhaps not more 
than two or three ; although several such cells may 
remain empty. I have already said that a failure, (or 
even a partial one), in the yield of honey at any time 
from the depositing of royal eggs till the sealing of 
the cells, (which is about ten days), would be likely 
to bring about their destruction. Even after being 
sealed, I have found a few instances where they were 
destroyed. 
STATE WHEN SWARMS ISSUE. 
But when there is nothing precarious about the 
honey, the sealing of these cells is the time to expect 
the first swarm, which will generally issue the first 
fair day after one or more are finished. I never missed 
