May, 1932                WISCONSIN BEEKEEPING                          Page
36 
 
 
also- been observed that a two-year- 
old queen was superceded and disap- 
peared soon after the young queen 
started her egg laying duties. Still the 
colony did not seem satisfied, and a 
third queen was reared which replaced 
the second and remained in the colony 
for the next two years. 
   As a rule, a colony with a young 
self-reared queen does riot swarm the 
same year, a fact which is success- 
fully utilized by the comb honey pro- 
ducers. 
   For some undetermined reason, a 
colony decides to rear a new queen; 
whether this will produce a swarm or 
appear as supercedure   is a   seasonal 
question. Supercedure and swarming 
are two closely related occurrences, 
with possibly the same intention but 
a different reaction, caused by changed 
environmental conditions. 
   Beekeepers find    supercedure  cells 
 during spring and fall; queen     cells 
 found during the summer flow are al- 
 ways looked upon as swarm cells. In 
 general, the  beekeeper   looks  upon 
 queen cells which appear in small num- 
 bers, from 1 to 5, mostly attached to 
 the comb, in the center or close to the 
 broodnest, as supercedure cells. If the 
 queen cells appear at the heights of 
 the season in a great number, attached 
 to the bottom edge of the comb, with- 
 out doubt they are swarm cells. 
    As mentioned before, supercedure 
 takes place mostly in the spring and 
 fall, at a time when nectar is coming 
 in sparsely, and the number of bees 
 is limited. The cells simply have to 
 be built within the clustering space of 
 the colony to provide the proper incu- 
 bation for them. The smaller num- 
 ber of cells corresponds to the decreased 
 population and the small number of 
 Jelly-secreting nursebees. At swarm- 
 ing time, the colony is again fully 
 developed and crowded with bees, the 
 temperature throughout the hive is the 
 same and    the  outdoor   temperature 
 makes a clustering necessity obsolete. 
 
 
There could.not be a better place for 
queen cells than the space between the 
two stories, or the first story and the 
bottom board. 
   We experienced several cases which 
show the close relation between these 
two natural requeening procedures. I 
have twice observed that colonies in 
the earlier part of June had developed 
to full strength, and inumerous queen 
cells were drawn; judging by their 
position and number, these were with- 
out doubt swarm cells. At the time 
when the cells reached the age of seven 
days-the     sealing  time-cold    and 
rAiny w'eather made swarm~ing, imi- 
possible. Sunny weather returned, but 
no swarms issued.     Examination of 
both colonies showed a surprising re- 
sult.   The queen cells in both col- 
onies were torn down, larvae and 
pupae removed. Only one cell in each 
colony showed the circular lid of nor- 
mally hatched queen cells.  The old 
queens, as well as the newly emerged 
virgins, were located.   After success- 
ful mating, both virgins laid eggs side 
by side with their mothers, although 
the mothers later disappeared. These 
colonies evidently prepared to swarm, 
but superceded their queens instead. 
    The reversal of this process also 
 took place once in the spring and twice 
 in the fall. The colony in the spring 
 had two cells, both on one comb in 
 the center of the broodnest. The bees 
 when   clustered  covered six   combs. 
 Fair and warm weather allowed the 
 gathering of fresh nectar from dande- 
 lion and fruit bloom.     The colony 
 swarmed with about a pound and a 
 half of bees, and in the mother colony 
 a virgin and a destroyed queen cell 
 were found. 
    Two similar cases were observed in 
 the fall. The number of queen cells 
 was two and four. The colonies were 
 still fairly strong, but not crowded. 
 An extremely warm day in August 
 caused both of them  to swarm; they 
 were hived and fed with syrup until