222 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



stands with a strong stock, when the bees are actively 

 gathering stores ; or bees brought from a distance may be 

 added to it.* If it raises a queen before she can be 

 seasonably impregnated, she may be killed, and more 

 brood-comb given to them. The smallest stocks may thus 

 be preserved until the drones appear, by which time they 

 may be made as strong as is desired. The stocks deprived 

 of their queens should be managed in the same way. By 

 this device, every queenless stock, however feeble, that 

 survives the Winter, may be nursed into profitable 

 strength. 



A vigilant eye should be kept upon every colony that 

 has not an impregnated queen; and when its queen is 

 about a week old it should be examined, and if she has 

 become fertile, she will usually be found supplying one of 

 the central combs with eggs. If neither queen nor eggs can 

 be found, and there are no certain indications that she is 

 lost, the hive should be examined a few days later, for some 

 queens are longer in becoming impregnated than others, 

 and it is often difficult to find an unimpregnated one, on 

 account of her adroit way of hiding among the bees. 



If the Apiarian relies on artificial swarming, he may 

 deprive his queens of their wings, as soon as they are im- 

 pregnated.! In a -large Apiary, where many swarms 

 might otherwise come off together, this will greatly di- 



* If a common hive Is found, in the Spring, to he very much reduced in numhera, 

 it can be recruited in the last two ways, provided it has a healthy queen. If it has 

 no queen, and is not sufficiently strong to justify giving it one from a weaker stock, 

 the bees should be joined to another colony, and the hive reserved, with its combs, 

 for future swarms. It should, however, be kept out of the reach of the bee-moth, 

 and before it is used again a few of the central combs should be broken out, to see 

 that it is not infested by worms. 



t Virgil speaks of clipping the wings of queens, to prevent them from escaping 

 with a swarm. John Mills (1766) quotes the following from an account published 

 of the sheep of Spain : " The number of bee-hives kept in Spain is incredible. I 

 am almost ashamed to give under my hand, that I knew a parish priest who had 

 five thousand hives. The bees suck all their honey from the aromatic flowers 



