I would like to inquire what becomes of the first series of drone eggs, the last of April, or the first of May, when the stocks are poorly supplied with honey, or when a family is small and but little honey through the summer? No drone brood is matured in these cases. It is not pretended that the queen has any control over the germination of these eggs, yet somehow she has them ready whenever the situation of the hive will warrant it. Two stocks may have an equal number of bees the first of May; one may have forty pounds of honey, the other four pounds; the latter cannot afford to rear a drone, while the other will have hundreds. Let two stocks have but four pounds each at any time in summer when honey is scarce, now feed one of them plentifully, and a brood of drones is sure to appear, while the other will not produce one. Whenever stocks are well stored with honey, and full of bees, the first of May will find drone-cells containing brood. If the flowers continue to yield a full supply, these cells may be examined every week from that period till the first swarm leaves, and I will engage that drone brood may be found in all stages from the egg to maturity; and the worker brood the same. In twenty-four days after the first swarm leaves, the last drone eggs left by the old queen will be just about matured. When transferring bees from old to new hives, I generally do it about twenty-one or twenty-two days after the first swarm, (this is the time to avoid destroying the worker-brood; the particulars will be given in another place.) I have transferred a great many, and _never failed_ to find a few drones about ready to leave the combs. Whether the swarm had left the last of May, or middle of July, there was no difference, they were on hand.
A very early swarm in good seasons, will often fill the hive, and send out an issue in from four to six weeks: the usual amount of drone-brood may be found in these cases. The following circumstance would appear to indicate that all the eggs are alike, and if they are laid in drone-cells, the bees give the proper food and make drones; if in worker-cells, workers, just as they make a queen from a worker-egg, when put in a royal cell.