266 QUEEN REARING. 



508. And liere, if permitted to address a word of friendly 

 advice, we would say to eveiy wife— Do all that you can to 

 make your husband's home a place of attraction. When 

 absent from it, let his heart glow at the thought of return- 

 ing to its dear enjoyments; as he approaches it, let his 

 countenance involuntarily assume a more cheerful expres- 

 sion, while his joy-quickened steps proclaim that he feels that 

 there is no place like the cheerful home where his chosen 

 wife and companion presides as its happy and honored 

 Queen. 



"The tenth and last species of women were made out of a 

 bee; and happy is the man who gets such a one for his wife. 

 She is full of virtue and prudence, and is the best wife that 

 Jupiter can bestow." — Spectator, No. 209. 



509. The neglect of a colony to expel drones (192), 

 when they are destroyed in other hives, is always a suspicious 

 sign, and generally an indication either that it has no queen, 

 or else a drone-laying one (134), or drone-laying workers 

 (176). A colony, in these circumstances, will not even 

 destroy the drones of other hives, which may come to it, 

 until a healthy queen has been raised in the hive, and is fer- 

 tilized, and laying worker-eggs. 



510. In opening a queenless hive, the plaintive hum of 

 die bees, the listless and intermittent vibrating of their wings, 

 and the total lack of eggs, or young worker brood, tell their 

 condition. 



A comb, with hatching bees,* should be given to it from 

 ft stronger colony, together with another comb, of eggs and 

 larvge, from the best colony in the apiary; and the number 

 of its combs should be reduced to suit the size of the clus- 

 ter. 



A better way yet to supply the loss, is to give the colony 

 a queen-cell (103) or a young queen raised in the manner to 

 be now described. 



* That class of bee-keepers who suppose that all such operations are 

 the "new fangled" inventions of modern times, will be surprised to learn 

 that Columella, 1800 years ago, recommended strengthening feeble col- 

 onies, by ruttinrf out combs from stronger ones, containing workers 

 "just gnawing out of their cells." 



