A Test For The Presence Of A Queen

Category: BREEDING.

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.

[7] It is said that the bees will devour these eggs also.

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.

Next: When Drones Are Reared
Previous: The Number Of Eggs Deposited By The Queen Guessed At

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A Test For The Presence Of A Queen