702 
QUEENS 
squeal, both of whose wings had been en¬ 
tirely clipped' off. 
VIRGIN QUEENS. 
The newly emerged queen is termed a 
virgin because she has not met a drone and 
to distinguish her from queens that have 
been fertilized and are laying. Virgin 
queens, when first emerged, are sometimes 
nearly as large as a fertile queen, but they 
gradually decrease in size, until when three 
or four days old they often look so small 
and insignificant that a novice is disgusted 
with their appearance, and, if hasty, pro¬ 
nounces them useless. For the first week 
of their lives they crawl about much as an 
ordinary young worker does, and it is often 
very difficult, if not almost impossible 
to find them unless an amount of time 
is taken that is more than a busy apiarist 
can well afford to spare. It is a waste of 
time to look for them. It is better to in¬ 
sert a frame having some unsealed larvae 
just hatched from the egg; then if no cells 
are started one can decide the queen is 
there without looking further. This plan 
answers a threefold purpose: It enables 
one to tell at a glance whether the queen is 
in the hive all right or not; for as soon as 
she is lost they will start more queen-cells 
on it; it also enables the bees to raise an¬ 
other queen in case the former queen is lost 
by any accident on her wedding-flight, 
which is frequently the case; and, lastly, it 
serves as a sort of nucleus to hold the bees 
together and to keep them from going out 
with the queen on her wedding-trip, which 
they are much disposed to do, if in a small 
nucleus containing no brood. (See Baby 
Nuclei under Queen-rearing.) Unsealed 
brood in a hive is a great safeguard against 
accidents of all sorts, and some say a young 
queen has been started to laying by simply 
giving the bees some eggs and unsealed 
brood. Whether it caused her to rouse up 
and take her wedding-flight, or whether 
she had taken it, but was for some reason 
idle, can not be determined. 
AGE AT WHICH VIRGIN QUEENS TAKE THEIR 
WEDDING-FLIGHT. 
Some fix the wedding-flight from two to 
ten days after birth. It is probably sel¬ 
dom before the fifth day. Some difference, 
doubtless, arises from the fact that queens 
often stay in the cell a day or two after 
they are strong enough to leave it. Some¬ 
times a queen will be found walking about 
the combs when she is so young as to -be 
almost white. Beginners will sometimes 
rejoice at their beautiful yellow queens, 
saying that they are yellow all over, with¬ 
out a bit of black on them; but when 
looked at again, they will be found to be 
as dark as the generality of queens. At 
other times when they come out of the cell 
they will look, both in color and size, as if 
they might be three or four days old. The 
queens generally begin to crawl about the 
entrance of the hive, possibly looking out 
now and then, when 5 or 6 days old. The 
next day, supposing, of course, it is fine 
weather, they will generally go out and try 
their wings a little. These flights are usu¬ 
ally taken in the warmest part of the after¬ 
noon. There is no prettier or more inter¬ 
esting sight to the apiarist than the first 
flight of a queen. She runs this way and 
that, somewhat as does a young bee, only 
apparently much more excited at the pros¬ 
pect of soaring aloft in the soft summer 
air. Finally she tremblingly spreads those 
silky wings, and with a graceful movement 
that can not be equaled anywhere in the 
whole scope of animated nature, she swings 
from her feet, while her long body sways 
pendulously as she hovers about the en¬ 
trance of the hive. A worker bee hovers 
also about the entrance and carefully ob¬ 
serves its location when trying its ivings 
for the first time; but she, seeming to feel 
instinctively that she is of more value to 
the colony than many, many workers, with 
the most scrupulous exactness notes every 
minute point and feature of the exterior of 
her abode, often alighting and taking wing 
again and again, to make sure she knows 
all about it. 
Soon she ventures to circle a little way 
from home, always verging back soon, but 
being gone longer and longer each time. 
She sometimes goes back into the hive sat¬ 
isfied, without going out of sight at all; 
but in this case she will be sure to take a 
longer flight next day or a half-hour later 
in the same day. During these seasons she 
seems to be so intent on the idea she has in 
her head that she forgets all about sur- 
