LOSS OF THE QUEEN. 219 



and the bees added to another colony ; a new swarm, 

 unless a queen nearly mature can be given to it (p. 149), 

 should always be broken up. If the new colony is large, 

 it will be better, instead of breaking it up, to give it a 

 queen from some old stock which can easily raise another. 

 If, however, the Apiarian uses movable-comb hives, and 

 pursues the nucleus system (p. 188), he will always have 

 queens on hand for all emergencies. 



Huber has proved that bees do not ordinarily transport 

 the eggs of the queen from one cell to another. I have, 

 however, in several instances, known them to carry worker- 

 eggs into royal cells. Mr. Wagner put some queenless 

 bees, brought from a distance, into empty combs that had 

 lain for two years in his garret. When supplied with 

 brood, they raised their queen in this old comb ! Mr. 

 Richard Colvin, of Baltimore, and other Apiarian friends, 

 have communicated to me instances almost as striking. 



Having described the precautions necessary to prevent 

 the loss of queens, it remains to show how the bee-keeper 

 can ascertain that a hive is queenless, and how he can 

 remedy such a misfortune. As soon as the bees begin to 

 fly briskly in the Spring, a stock which does not industri- 

 ously gather pollen,* or accept of rye flour, and which 

 refuses clean water, given to it in an empty comb, is 

 almost certain to have no queen, or one that is not fertile 

 unless it is on the eve of being destroyed by worms, or 

 of perishing from starvation. 



A stock is sure to be queenless, if, after taking its first 

 Spring-flight, the bees, by roaming, in an inquiring manner, 

 in and out of the hive (p. 67), show that some great 



* "Mr. Kandolph Peters, of Philadelphia, had a stock -which he was satisfied 

 was queenless, as the bees did not cany in pollen for 28 days. I put a queen into 

 the hive, he holding a watch in his hand, and in 3% minutes from the time she was 

 introduced, a bee was seen to enter with pollen on its legs J We both observed 

 the entrance for some time, and saw many bees carry in pollen." P. J. MAHAN. 



