Meanwhile the breeding-box, No. 1, deprived of its queen, has prepared queen-cells, which on the tenth day are cut out, except one or two, and form likewise new colonies,[4] It must be observed that the bees which adhere to the combs or the brood, and which guard the cells, are taken out with them. The strengthening of such colonies is done best by hanging in of ripe brood near their development, or by young bees which always set on the combs, and who attend to the real brood business.
[4] You must endeavour to insert the queen-cells in the middle of a comb, where the most of the bees gather; it is done best by cutting a diamond-shaped piece out of the comb, and then, loosely inserting the queen-cell cut to a similar shape. If it were inserted in the lower edge, the bees could not cover it on the approach of cold weather, and the cell would become cold and the bee perish.
The same is done with the queen-cells of No. 2, and so on. Care must be exercised to be well supplied with all the different stages, from the egg to the queen, so that there are always ready ripe and half-ripe cells, impregnated and unimpregnated queens in all stages.
If now, a queen has crept out, you must wait until she is impregnated, and has well supplied the box with brood, then take away the queen, and put in from another hive a ripe queen-cell; where the queen-cell has been taken from, a few brood-combs must be inserted, so that no interruption takes place. If a queen, taken away, can always be replaced by a ripe queen-cell, fifteen queens may be produced from one breeding-box during one summer. Care must be taken that there is always young brood in a queen-breeding-box, so that in case a queen or queen-cell should meet with an accident, the bees have a substitute, and no interruption can occur.
The brood is necessary to the bees and makes them industrious. Therefore, never take a queen from her people until she has well supplied them with eggs and brood. Frequent inspection is very necessary, for sometimes everything may be thought to be quite in order, and yet a hive has, instead of a queen, only working bees, who, through a longer deprivation of their queen have themselves commenced to lay eggs but out of which only drones are produced, to the great disappointment of the cultivator. This disorder can soon be observed, for the bees lay many eggs and without order in one cell, while the queen lays only one, never more than two in one cell.
Such a hive, where the bees have commenced laying eggs, may also be known by blowing into it, when the bees will hum quite hollow, while in a hive with a queen, the humming is quite lively and cheerful.
If not too far gone, the hive may be brought round by inserting a comb of healthy brood with the adhering young bees; but if it has gone too far, it must be united with a healthy hive, else all trouble is lost. Introduced queens are killed by such demoralised people.
§ 11.
RESERVING OF QUEEN-CELLS.
Often it will happen that there are more queen-cells than can be used at the moment, for they must not be let lying about long, else they will become cold; and generally the brood must be protected from cold.