32 
FOLLOWING THE BEE LINE 
The old beekeeper’s trained eye sees and answers 
all these questions, often by just taking out two or 
three combs. If he does not see the queen in a 
strong colony, where the many thousands of bees 
often collect in clumps and the queen may be hidden, 
he does not necessarily jump to the conclusion that 
there is no queen. Instead he tilts the combs letting 
the light shine into the cells. If he finds eggs in the 
bottoms of these cells, he knows the queen has 
surely been there within two or three days at least, 
since eggs turn into small larvae at the end of that 
time. He can distinguish between the first intima¬ 
tions of the issuing of a swarm and the “play-spell” 
of young bees trying out their wings in their first 
flights. As the youngsters circle and wheel over 
their hive, marking its precise location in their 
minds, there is a close similarity to the dartings and 
circlings of bees just before they swarm. 
He knows the queen is a good queen if there are 
many cells with eggs, and ringed about those cells, 
others holding pearly white worms, or larvae, curled 
neatly in the bottom of each. Those cells in turn 
surrounded by capped or sealed cells that have a 
thin brown beeswax covering, or capping, which 
looks indeed somewhat like a little round, slightly 
puffed cap. Inside, the larvae are eating the “bee- 
