43 
make cells whilst the queen is still there. Ifa centre frame cannot be got out 
without crushing the bees, one of the side frames must be removed and placed 
alongside the hive; then the others are moved along till one is found with eggs 
and brood in it. Jf there are plenty of eggs and brood in the hive, it is all 
right; also it must be noticed if they are cramped for room. If so, the honey- 
board is put on and a super or top story added, filled with frames of foundation 
or with empty combs. Ina strong colony the queen lays for nine months in 
the year, and only takes a rest in the winter time or during a scarcity of honey, 
and it has been estimated that a prolific queen lays from 2,000 to 3,000 eggs 
daily, but she would probably lay that number for a short period only. In three 
days after the eggs are laid they will hatch out into small larve or grubs, and 
the bees feed these laryze with a mixture of poilen and honey, partially 
digested, for a period of nine or ten days from the time the eges were laid. 
They then seal the mouth of the cell up, and the young worker bee hatches 
out after eleven or twelve days, or about twenty-one days from the time the 
egg was laid. The queen takes only sixteen days to hatch, and the drone the 
longest time of all, hatching out twenty-four or twenty-five days from the 
laying of the egg. After the hive is full of honey and brood, provision must 
be made for giving the bees more room, so another hive body will be required 
with ten frames of comb or foundation, which is placed upon the lower one 
with a ‘queen excluder” or zinc honey-board between them, the object of which 
is to prevent the qneen and drones from coming into the top story or super 
and the queen from laying there, for the super is for honey alone, and the queen — 
should be given plenty of room in the lower hive or brood-nest. As the combs 
in the super are filled with honey the bees will seal the cells over, and it is” 
the honey that is taken from sealed combs that is the best and thickest, as it 
has then been ripened. Bees usually commence storing honey in the centre 
frames first, and as these are being filled they may be moved to the side of the hive 
andreplaced with the empty ones, so asto fill the super up in every frameregularly. 
When the brood-nest and super are filled with honey and brood, the bees make' 
preparations for swarming by building shailow queen-cells (whichresemble the cup 
of anacorn in shape), and in each of these cells, if she is ready, the queen lays a 
worker egg, which, just before hatching, the bees liberally supply with a very 
concentrated food called “royal jelly,’ supposed to be similar to that supplied — 
to every young worker larvie, only a great deal richer. This food is given 
freely during the whole of the larva period, and after nine days from the time 
the egg was laid the queen cell is sealed up, and the young queen hatches out 
- in about one week more, or sixteen days from the laying of the ege. But 
before the cells hatch out, the swarm will leave with part of the bees, and the 
first hatched queen will destroy the other cells; but it is probable that the 
bees help her to do so, and sometimes, instead of the queen destroying the 
cells, she will lead out another swarm—that is, if the colony is sufficiently 
strong. All swarms after the first swarm are called after-swarms, and are 
accompanied by virgin queens, They are more difficult to hive than first 
swarms, ard will generally fly farther from the hive before they cluster, as the 
queens are more active. It 1s desirable to give an after-swarm a frame of eggs 
and young brood, as it holds them together «better, and lessens the chance of 
their leaving the hive. In fact, it is a good plan to give all newly hived 
swarms a frame of eggs or young larvae, as they go to work better when so 
supplied, and it enables one to tell if the queen is there, as if she is lost, the 
bees will start queen cells with the eges or larvw; and, as before-mentioned, 
there is no need to trouble to look for the queen often, because if eggs are 
present the queen must have been there within three days. When the super 
or top story is filled with honey it may be extracted, but first of all the bees 
will haye to be removed from the combs, so each frame must be lifted out and 
jerked sharply in front of the entrance of the hive, and any bees left on the 
combs brushed off with a bee-brush or a bunch of soft grass or leaves. But 
a much better way to get the bees off the combs is to use a*bee-escaper or 
super-clearer, which, when the honey is ready to extract, is put between the 
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