MillerThousand AnswersBeekeepingQuestions.pdf - BioBees

194 DR. MILLER Sfour to six days later. In fifteen or sixteen days from the layingof the egg the queen will hatch.Q. When is a queen-cell ripe?A. The term "ripe" is applied to a queen-cell when it is nearthe time for the young queen to emerge, perhaps any time withintwo days, possibly within three, of emergence. When a cell isFig. -Oueen-cells built on the lower side of combs by a colony which hadbeen deprived of its queen.sealed, you may know that at the farthest it will be only abouteight daj'S till the young queen emerges. Usually the sharp pointof the cell will be gnawed away something like two days beforethe hatching, leaving the cell quite rounding at the end.Q. When a colony is queenless and there are queen-cells, thenone queen hatches, do the bees, or the first queen hatched, destroythe other queen-cells?A. Both engage in the gruesome business.Q. How often will I have to look for queen-cells?A. There's no law against your doing so whenever you feellike it, but I suspect you mean to prevent swarming. As already