. The A B C of bee culture: a cyclopaedia of every thing pertaining to the care of the honey-bee. QUEENS. 201 QUEENS. lost, tliey will start more queen-cells on it; it enables the bees to start aiiotlier queen, in case the queen is lost by any acciilent in her wedding-tlight, which is freciuenlly tlie case; ami, 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 wed- ding-trip, which they are much disposed to to do, if in a small nucleus containing no brood. Unsealed brood in a hive is a great safeguard against accidents of a
. The A B C of bee culture: a cyclopaedia of every thing pertaining to the care of the honey-bee. QUEENS. 201 QUEENS. lost, tliey will start more queen-cells on it; it enables the bees to start aiiotlier queen, in case the queen is lost by any acciilent in her wedding-tlight, which is freciuenlly tlie case; ami, 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 wed- ding-trip, which they are much disposed to to do, if in a small nucleus containing no brood. Unsealed brood in a hive is a great safeguard against accidents of all sorts, and I have often started a young queen to lay- ing by simply giving the bees some eggs and unsealed brood. Whether it caused her to rouse uji and take her wedding - tliglit. or whether she had taken it, but was for some reason idle, I can not say; but this I know, that young queens that do not lay at two weeks of age will often commence, when eggs and larvse are given to their colonies. It may be that the sight of eggs and larva; suggests to them the next step in affairs, or it may induce the workers to feed them, as they do a laying queen, an unusual quantity of ; AGE .\T WHICH VIRGIN QUEENS TAKE THEIR WEDDING-FLIGHT. (Jur books seem to disagree considerably on this point, and I am afraid that many of the book-makers tind it easier to copy from the sayings of others than to make practi- cal experiments. It has been variously stat- ed, at from two to ten days : some go as far as to say that the queen goes out to meet the drones the day after leavin'; the cell.'* It is quite likely that some difference arises from the fact that queens often stay in the cell a day or two after they are strong enough to walk about. .Sometimes a queen will be found walking about the combs when she is so young as to be almost white; I have oft- en seen beginners rejoice at their beautiful yellow queens, saying that they were yellow all over, without a bit of black on them; but wh
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