Schirach estimates "the eggs a single female will lay, from 70,000 to 100,000 in a season." Reaumer and Huber do not estimate so high. Another writer estimates 90,000, in three months. Let the number be as it may, probably thousands are never perfected. During the spring months, in medium and small families, where the bees can protect with animal heat but a few combs, I have often found cells containing a plurality of eggs, two, three, and occasionally four, in a single cell. These supernumeraries must be removed, and frequently may be found amongst the dust on the bottom-board.
A TEST FOR THE PRESENCE OF A QUEEN.
If you have a hive that you suspect has lost a queen at this season, her presence can be ascertained nine times in ten by this method. Sweep off the board clean, and look the next day or two after for these eggs. Take care that ants, or mice, have no chance to get them; they might deceive you, being as fond of eggs for breakfast as anyone.[7 ] When one or more is found, or any immature bees, it is sufficient, no further proof of the presence of a queen is needed.
Another portion of eggs is wasted whenever a supply of their food fails; if we remove the bees from a stock during a scarcity, when the hive is light, we will be very likely to find hundreds of eggs in the cells, and but very few advancing from that stage towards maturity. I have thus found it in the fall, in July, and sometimes the first of June, or at any time when maturing the brood would be likely to exhaust their stores, to endanger the family's supply. Now, instead of the fertility of the queen being greater in spring and first of summer than at other times, (as we are often told), I would suggest the probability that a greater abundance of food at this season, and a greater number of empty cells, may be the reason of the greater number of bees matured.
WHEN DRONES ARE REARED.
Whenever the hive is well supplied with honey, and plenty of bees, a portion of eggs are deposited in the drone-cells, which three or four days more are necessary to mature than the worker.
WHEN QUEENS ARE REARED.
Also, when the combs become crowded with bees, and honey plenty, the preparations for young queens commence: as the first step towards swarming, from one to twenty royal cells are begun; when about half completed, the queen (if all continues favorable) will deposit eggs in them, these will be glued fast by one end like those for the workers; there is no doubt but they are precisely the same kind of eggs that produce other bees. When hatched, the little worm will be supplied with a superabundance of food; at least, it appears so from the fact, that a few times I have found a quantity remaining in the cell after the queen had left. The consistence of this food is about like cream, the color some lighter, or just tinged with yellow. If it was thin like water, or even honey, I cannot imagine how it could be made to stay in the upper end of an inverted cell of that size in such quantities as are put in, as the bees often fill it near half full. Sometimes a cell of this kind will contain this food, and no worm to feed upon it. I guessed the bees had compounded more than their present necessities required, and that they stored it there to have it ready, also, that being there all might know it was for royalty.
PLATE OF THE THREE KINDS OF CELLS.