The Number Of Eggs Deposited By The Queen Guessed At

Categories: BREEDING.
Bee Keeping: Mysteries Of Bee-keeping Explained

The number of eggs that a queen will deposit is often another point of

guess-work. When the estimate does not exceed 200 per diem, I have no

reason to dispute it; the number will probably fall short in some

cases, and exceed it in others. Some writers suppose that this number

"would never produce a swarm, as the bees that are lost daily amount

to, or even exceed that number," and give us instead from eight hundred

to f ur thousand eggs in a day, from one queen. The only way to test

the matter accurately, is by actually counting, in an observatory hive,

or in one with sufficient empty combs to hold _all the eggs_ she will

deposit for a few days, when, by removing the bees, and counting

carefully, we might ascertain, and yet several would have to be

examined, before we could get at the average. The nearest I ever came

to knowing anything about it happened as follows: A swarm left, and the

queen from some cause was unable to cluster with it, and was found,

after some trouble, in the grass a few rods off. She was put in the

hive with the swarm about 11 o'clock, A.M.; the next morning, at

sunrise, I found on the bottom-board, among the scales of wax, 118 eggs

that had been discharged in that time. Probably a few escaped notice,

as the color is the same as wax scales; also, they might already have

had combs containing some. I have several times found a few the next

morning, under swarms hived the day previous, but never over thirty,

except in this one instance. The reason of this queen not being able to

fly well might have been an unusual burden of eggs. Perhaps it would be

as well to mention here, that in all cases where eggs are found in this

way, that they must be first swarms which are accompanied by the old

queens.



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.