MillerThousand AnswersBeekeepingQuestions.pdf - BioBees

THOUSAND ANSWERS 77cellared, she begins about the time bees are taken out of thecellar.Q. What would you think of a queen that fills every cell inmost of the combs with eggs, and in numerous places has eggsin half -built cells, and in cells filled with beebread?A. That is just what every good queen should do, except layingin a cell containing pollen. When you find eggs in apollen-cell you may generally count that laying workers are present,although it is possible that occasionally an otherwise goodqueen may do such a foolish thing.Eggs. — Q. Has the queen the power to fertilize eggs or not?A. Sure. She fertilizes all but the drone-eggs.Q. In regard to bee-eggs, is there any difference or distinctionbetween the eggs from which a queen and worker are hatched orreared? If I am correct, bee-men use any egg they may come towhen transferring eggs to queen-cells, and the difference resultsfrom the size of cell and the material on which the young beesare fed.A. An egg laid by a good queen in a queen-cell is precisely thesame as one she lays in a worker-cell. A drone-egg is a differentthing. A drone-egg is unfertilized and can produce nothing buta drone, even if fed in a queen-cell; other eggs are fertilized.Q. I have only one colony of bees, in which I find many cellswith from 2 to 6 eggs in each. And at the front end of some ofthe combs there are cells that seem to have 30 or 40 eggs in each.I never saw anything like it before. I could not find the queen.Did laying workers try to fill the cells with eggs?A. Almost certainly it is laying workers. You will probablyfind that if any drone-cells are in the brood-nest the nuisanceshave been specially favorable to them. Also, you will be likelyto find one or more queen-cells, and in these there may be asmany as a dozen eggs in each. Better break up the whole business,giving combs with adhering bees to other colonies.Q. I have a queen that I reared in a nucleus. She is of goodsize and pure Italian; very gentle. I have seen her lay whileholding up the comb, but I have counted as many as six eggs mone cell What do you think is the matter with her? She is in ahive but the bees cover only four frames in it. Do you thinkthere ought to be more bees in it so the queen could have moreroom?A. It is nothing unusual for a good queen to lay more thanone egg in a cell when she has so small a fo.rce of bees that shehasn't room to spread herself; although it is unusual for her to