QUEEN-REARING 
687 
Queen, drone, and worker. 
CONDITIONS FAVORABLE AND UNFAVORABLE 
FOR REARING QUEENS. 
Bees will builcl queen-cells _ and rear 
young queens, when preparing to swarm 
(see Swarming), when superseding an old. 
failing queen, or when their queen is lost 
thru accident or removed hv the beekeeper. 
Some hold that the best queens are those 
that are reared either during the swarming 
time or when the bees are about to super¬ 
sede an old queen soon to fail. • At such 
times one may see large beautiful queen- 
cells, looking like big peanuts, projecting 
from the side of the comb. The larvae in 
such cells are lavishly fed with royal jelly; 
and when the queens finally emerge they are 
usually large and vigorous. 
As already stated there is one class of 
cells that bees rear when they are about 
to supersede an old queen. When she is 
two or three years old she begins to show 
signs of failing. The bees recognize the 
fact that their own mother will soon die, 
or at least need help from a daughter, and 
very leisurely proceed to construct a num¬ 
ber of cells, all of which are supplied with 
larvaa, and fed in the same lavish way as 
those reared under the swarming impulse. 
Unfortunately one can never determine 
in advance when the bees will rear super- 
sedure cells, and it may be true that the 
queen about to be superseded is not desirable 
stock from which to real'. In like manner it 
may be that cells reared under the swarm¬ 
ing impulse, if from poor stock, should be 
rejected; because it is certainly unwise to 
rear queens from any thing but the very 
best select stock. All of the finest swarrn- 
ing-cells from good queens can be reserved 
and kept in a warm place. Queens two or 
three years old can be destroyed and their 
colonies supplied with one of these cells. 
One may have good queens even three or 
more, years old, but it is hardly probable. 
The majority of honey-producers think it 
profitable to replace all queens two years 
old, while a good many make it a practice 
to requeen all colonies having queens one 
year and over. 
While these swarming-cells produce the 
