September 15, 1887. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
239 
edges of the combs will commonly be found. In many 
instances, however, the queen cells are in a much less 
advanced state, and upon a sudden wave of heat taking 
the bees as it were by surprise, after a considerable period 
of cool and unfavourable weather, the bees, if strong and 
numerous, hastily form queen cells, and while the eggs are 
still unhatched send out a swarm, leaving to the bees that 
remain in the stock the care of the still unborn princesses. 
On the other hand, when an artificial swarm is taken from 
a stock it only rarely happens that queen cells have been 
prepared, because, although a stock may be strong enough 
to yield a swarm, the bees may have no present intention 
of throwing off their surplus population. 
Between the taking of a swarm by artificial methods 
and the issue of a cast, from fourteen to seventeen days 
generally elapse; every argument, therefore, in favour of 
providing stocks which have sent out natural swarms 
with queens or ripe queen cells will carry still greater 
weight when applied to stocks from which swarms have 
been taken artificially, because the period of queenlessness 
is longer in the latter case than the former, and the loss 
is therefore greater. 
Again, it must not be forgotten that bees have the 
power, and frequently use it, of raising a queen from 
worker lame not more than three or four days old; and 
when this power is used a shorter period will conse¬ 
quently elapse between the formation of the royal cell and 
the issue of the young queen. These queens are inferior 
to those raised from eggs. The reason for the superiority 
of queens raised from eggs is that larvae intended to 
develope into workers only have not the advantage of 
receiving from the day of their birth the special food 
with which larvae intended from the time of their issue 
from the egg to furnish queens are supplied in prodigal 
abundance. The ovaries are consequently not fully de¬ 
veloped, and the laying powers are crippled to a greater 
or less extent. 
Queen cells, to continue, remain capped eight days 
before the perfect queen emerges from the cell; it follows, 
therefore, that if queen cells are capped on or before the 
date of the issue of the swarm, an interval of nine days 
from the day when the royal cells were capped must elapse 
before the issue of a cast. Now, since royal cells are 
sealed on the ninth day, it also follows that if some of the 
royal cells are not capped when the swarm issues the cast 
will be delayed by a period of days proportionate to the 
time elapsing after the issue of the swarm before the cells 
are sealed. As a general rule a cast issues nine or ten 
days after the swarm, but in this, as in most other 
matters connected with bee-keeping, there is no invariable 
rule. 
Sufficient has been said to show that a period of 
fifteen days at least elapses between the deposit of the 
egg in the cell and the issue of the perfect queen. In 
from six to seven days afterwards the young queen goes 
forth to meet the drone, and if successful in her marriage 
flight at once begins her life of labour. Thus from the 
time when the old queen leaves the hive a period of 
twenty-three days at least elapses before another egg is 
laid. It is easy to perceive that this means a very con¬ 
siderable loss to the bee-keeper, for on the ninth or tenth 
day after the departure of the swarm all the larvre will 
have passed beyond the feeding stage, and no more eggs 
being deposited, the bees will be set free from their 
nursery work while many of them are yet unfit to perform 
the more active work of the hive by going to the fields for 
honey and pollen. In twenty-three days a good queen 
will lay some 46,000 eggs; if, therefore, we leave to the 
bees of the old stock the duty of queen-raising, we do so 
at terrific loss and without any compensation to adjust the 
balance. It is the duty of every practical bee-keeper to 
provide queens or ripe queen cells for every stock, and so 
to overspan the interval of queenlessness. In doing this 
not the slightest difficulty need be apprehended, because 
after the issue of a swarm the vast majority of the bees 
renmining in the old stock are young and unable to leave 
the hive, while those older bees which do remain are per¬ 
fectly willing to accept a queen, or even a ripe queen 
cell. 
If a queen can be obtained she may be allowed to run in 
at the entrance an hour or two after the departure of the 
swarm. She will be gladly received, and queen cells will 
be at once destroyed. But if a queen cannot be pro - 
cured a ripe queen cell may very possibly be obtained, 
and although there is a loss of some days when a queen 
cell is inserted before the princess emerges from the cell 
and becomes fertile, still there is a saving of at least- 
fourteen days, and consequently a profit to the bee-keeper. 
It has been said that the perfect queen emerges from the 
cell on the sixteenth day. We know that the cells are 
capped on the ninth day, and that an interval of eight 
days elapses between the capping of the cell and the 
issue of the perfect queen; if, then, we can ascertain 
when the cell was capped, the day of the issue of the 
princess is shown at once, and we may lay our plans 
accordingly. Again, even if we are unable to discover 
the date of capping, still we may detect the age and ripe¬ 
ness of a cell by the “ chamfering ” process which the 
the cell undergoes when the princess is almost ready to 
emerge from the cell. 
Queen cells should not be inserted on the day when 
the swarm issues, but on the following day, otherwise the 
bees may destroy the princess while still in the cell, and 
thus frustrate our efforts. It is very easy to insert these 
cells in any form of hive, and if care is taken not to shake, 
chill, or bruise the still unborn princess, no difficulty need 
be apprehended. When cutting a queen cell from the 
comb on which it has been formed, a piece of comb should 
be cut away with it for ensuring more safety in handling 
the precious cell, and also to simplify the process of 
insertion in the queenless stock. Going up to the hive iu 
which the cell is to be inserted, we remove the covering 
and place the cell hanging in its natural position—almost 
invariably head downwards—between the two centre 
combs, and fixing it in that position either by simply 
pressing the comb to which the queen cell is attached 
into the top of the centre combs, or on to the frames, or 
by means of a pin or small w'ooden skewer. Pressing the 
piece of comb lrom which the cell depends into the top of 
the comb is always sufficient to hold the cell in position 
if properly managed. 
There are other and more difficult methods, but it is 
hardly necessary to describe them, for practical bee¬ 
keepers generally adopt the simplest plans in preference 
to the more difficult manipulations in which many theorists 
delight. It must not be forgotten that on the sixth or 
seventh, and possibly following days, after the perfect 
princess emerges from the cell, if the weather is fine, 
warm and sunny, about noon the princess goes forth on 
her marriage flight. The dangers attending these excursions 
are great, and are fatal to many queens. Every hive 
should have some distinguishing mark, in order to assist 
the queen on her return to discern her home; for want 
of this many queens enter other hives, and are lost. 
Happily for the bee-keeper, when once the object of the 
