Soon after such cell is introduced, the bees are quiet. In a few days it hatches, and they have a queen as perfect as if it had been one of their own rearing. This queen of course will be necessitated to leave the hive, and will be just as liable to be lost, but no more so than others, and must be watched the same. It is unnecessary to look for a cell in a stock that has cast its first swarm more than a week before, as they are generally destroyed by that time, (sometimes short of it,) unless they intend to send out an after swarm.
MARK THE DATE OF SWARMS ON THE HIVE.
Should you have so many stocks that you cannot remember the date of each swarm without difficulty, it is a good plan to mark the date on one side or corner of the hive, as it issues. You can then tell at once where to look for a cell when wanted.
It will sometimes happen that a queen may be lost at the extreme end of the swarming season, when no other stock contains such cells. I then look around for the poorest stock or swarm that I have on hand, one that I can afford to sacrifice, if it possesses a queen, to save the one that has sustained this loss; this is not often the case, but is sometimes. I have a few times put just bees enough with the queen to keep her in a box, and kept them for this purpose, as was mentioned in the last chapter. When introduced, the bees are generally killed, but the queen is preserved.
OBTAINING A QUEEN FROM WORKER BROOD.
There is yet another method to be adopted, and that is, to obtain a piece of brood-comb containing workers' eggs, or larvæ very young. You will generally find it without much trouble, in a young swarm that is making combs; the lower ends usually contain eggs; take a piece from one of the middle sheets, two or three inches long, (you will probably use smoke by this time without telling). Invert the hive that is to receive it, put the piece edgewise between the combs, if you can spread them apart enough for the purpose; they will hold it there, and then there will be ample room to make the cells. They will nearly always rear several queens. I have counted nine several times, which were all they had room for. But yet I have very little confidence in such queens, they are almost certain to be lost.
THEY ARE POOR DEPENDENCE.
Therefore I would recommend getting a royal cell whenever it is practical. There is yet another advantage; you will have a queen ready to lay eggs two or three weeks earlier, than when they are compelled to commence with the egg. I have put such piece of brood-comb in a small glass box on the top of the hive instead of the bottom, because it was less trouble, but in this case the eggs were all removed in a short time; whether a queen was reared in the hive or not I cannot say; but this I know, I never obtained a prolific queen, after repeated experiments in this way.
It would appear that I have been more unfortunate with queens reared in this way, than most experimenters. I have no difficulty to get them formed to all appearance perfect, but lose them afterwards. Now whether this arose from some lack of physical development, by taking grubs too far advanced to make a perfect change, or whether they were reared so late in the season, that most of the drones were destroyed, and the queen to meet one had to repeat her excursions till lost, I am yet unable to fully determine. To test the first of these questions, I have a few times removed all the larvæ from the comb; leaving nothing but eggs, that all the food given them might be "royal pap," from the commencement, and had no better success so far. Yet occasionally prolific queens have been reared when I could account for their origin in no other way but from worker eggs. But you will find they are not to be depended upon generally.
Sometimes, after all our endeavors, a stock or two will remain destitute of a queen. These, if they escape the worms, will generally store honey enough in this section to winter a good family. This will have to be introduced, of course, from another hive, containing a queen; but this belongs to Fall management.