THOUSAND ANSWERS 177 



swarming, then the guards relax, allowing the cells to be at- 

 tacked, and also allowing their inmates to emerge. Then there 

 will be a free-for-all fight, one after the other each queen will be 

 killed until only one is left, the victor in each case coming off 

 unscathed. Sometimes a number of the virgins will go off with 

 the swarm, where they can settle their differences as well as if 

 they had stayed in the old home. 



Queen, Failing.— Q. Please state some of the indications of a 

 poor, failing, or old queen. 



A. Some of the brood in worker-cells may be drone-brood, 

 as shown by the raised cappings of the cells; the brood may be 

 scattering, or it may be scanty. 



Queens, Feeding. — Q. Can a queen eat as other bees or do the 

 bees have to feed her? It is said that the bees feed the queen. 



A. A queen can eat as other bees, as you can easily deter- 

 mine by caging one for a. short time and then offering her a little 

 honey. During the time of year when she is not laying she may 

 help herself like other bees, but in the season of busy laying the 

 bees feed her with food that is no longer undigested. If she were 

 obliged to digest all the food she takes during heavy laying, I'm 

 afraid the daily quota of eggs would decline very suddenly. 



Queen, Finding. — Q. Can you give any suggestions to a novice 

 as to how to find the queen? 



A. Experience is the best thing. After some practice you'll 

 spot a queen on a comb very readily. Don't do anything to set 

 the bees to running. If they get to running, you may as well 

 close the hive till another time. The two things most likely to 

 set them to running are too much smoke and too rough handling. 

 So use just as little smoke as will keep the bees under subjection, 

 and be slow and gentle in all your movements. G. M. Doolittle 

 says that from 9 o'clock till 3 the queen is most likely to be found 

 on the outside of the comb that has brood in, either on one side 

 or the other. If you lift out two or three frames and set them 

 in an empty hive, that gives you room in the hive to glance over 

 one side of each comb before you touch it at all. That is, when 

 . you lift out a frame, before carefully looking it over, glance over 

 the exposed side of the next frame in the hive. Often you may 

 see the queen thus in the hive, when with gentle haste you will 

 put down the frame in your hand and lift out the one with the 

 queen. After looking over the combs two or three times without 



