QUEENS 
707 
she becomes fertile, and begins to help her 
mother. 
Very early in the spring, late in the fall, 
or at any time when forage is not abun¬ 
dant, a queen will pass right by drone-cells, 
taking no notice of them. The author has 
fried to get eggs in drone-cells by feeding, 
but concludes that the queen knows What an 
egg will produce, and just how to have 
every egg laid in a drone-cell produce a 
drone. Possibly the workers have some¬ 
thing to do with this matter, but no one 
knows by what means they signify to the 
queen that some eggs in drone-cells, or even 
queen-cells, would be desirable. There seems 
to be a constant understanding in the hive 
as to what is going to be done next, and 
consequently there is no clashing. In the 
author’s apiary there seems to be, in strong 
stocks, a kind of understanding that eggs 
shall be laid in drone-cells about the last of 
March and drones are found, therefore, 
some time in April, ready for the first 
queens that may, by any accident, make 
their appearance. Those who insist that 
there is only one kind of eggs can satisfy 
themselves very easily by taking a larva 
hatched from a worker-egg and placing it 
in the bottom of a queen-cell. In due time 
this will develop into a queen. On the 
other hand, if a larva from a drone-egg is 
placed in a queen-cell no queen results. 
Occasionally a queen is found that will 
never lay at all; again, queens that laid 
eggs which never hatched into larvae have 
been several times reported. 
After having related some of the faults 
and imperfections of queens, it should be 
stated for their credit that, when once 
properly installed in a good strong colony, 
they are about as safe property as any¬ 
thing, because, in the great majority of 
cases, they live and thrive for years. While 
a worker lives only a few months, queens 
often live three or four years. One that 
was imported from Italy furnished the 
author brood and eggs for queen-rearing 
for four summers. She was sold for $2.00, 
and she died in being sent less than 50 
miles. She was very large and heavy, and, 
probably, being so old could not cling to, 
the sides of the cage like a younger one. 
LOSS OF QUEEN. 
It is a very important matter to be able 
to know at once when a queen is lost. Dur¬ 
ing the months of May and June in the 
States east of the Mississippi and north of 
the Ohio the loss of a queen from the hive 
a single day will make quite a marked dif¬ 
ference in the honey crop. If it be as¬ 
sumed that the number of eggs a queen can 
lay in a day is 3,000, by taking her away a 
single day there might be just that number 
of bees short during a yield of honey. To 
put it very moderately, a quart of bees 
might be taken out of the hive by simply 
caging the queen for a single day. Begin¬ 
ners should remember this, for their un¬ 
timely, or, rather, inconsiderate tinkering, 
just before the flow of honey comes, often 
cuts short their income to a very consider¬ 
able degree. Whatever is done, it is very 
important not to drop the queens off the 
combs when they are handled at this time 
of the year, nor should one needlessly inter¬ 
rupt the queen in her work by changing 
the combs about so as to expose the brood 
or upset the little household matters of the 
bees. 
With a little practice one will be able io 
detect a queenless hive simply by the way 
the bees behave themselves in the hive and 
on the outside. When they stand around 
on the alighting-board in a listless sort of 
way, with no bees going in with pollen, 
when other colonies are thus engaged, it is 
well to open the hive and take a look at 
them. (See Diagnosing Colonies.) If 
eggs and worker-brood are found one may 
be sure a queen is there; but if not, pro¬ 
ceed at once to see if there is not a queen 
of some kind in the hive, that does not lay. 
If one is not found they should be given a 
frame of eggs to see if they build queen-, 
cells. Incipient ones should be found in 
about twenty-four hours if the bees have 
been some little time queenless. If these are 
found a queen should be given. If no 
queen is to be had, they may be allowed to 
raise one, if the colony has bees enough. 
If it has not, they should be united with 
some other stock. 
THE CRY OF DISTRESS FROM A QUEENLESS 
COLONY. 
A queenless colony will reveal its condi¬ 
tion, if not of long standing, by the be¬ 
havior of the bees in the hive. They will 
