65 



door, and will rarely try to enter by the tunnel, the narrow pas- 

 sage of which while affording means of egress for the bees in the 

 hive, could readily be defended by them ; as the bees of the 

 attacked stock will probably on their return crowd at the hive 

 entrance, the tunnel should be removed after bees have ceased 

 flying for the day ; the robber bees will then have returned to 

 their own hives, and only the bees belonging to the robbed stock 

 will enter; after they have done so, the tunnel should be 

 replaced in position : this treatment should be continued for a 

 few days, until robbing appears to have ceased. 



XX.— BEARING, CHANGING, INTEODUCING, FOR- 

 WAEDING, AND WINTERING QUEENS. 



As explained in paragraph 6, a prolific queen rapidly exhausts 



herself when afforded every facility for 



144. Necessity for laying in a bar-frame hive ; as such queens 



Re-queening Stocks, deteriorate in egg-laying powers after two 



seasons, they should never be retained 



longer. It may also be necessary to re-queen for any of 



the following reasons, viz., the queen having been rendered 



practically useless, through accident or injury (many queens are 



killed or injured when frames are carelessly or roughly moved) ; 



loss of queen when on nuptial flight (6) owing to her being 



seized by a bird, falling into grass, failing to recognise hive on 



return (68), or for other reasons. 



The signs that a stock is queenless are as follows : — On the 

 first day after losing their queen, the bees 

 146. ftueenlessness. run about in a bewildered, agitated state, 

 in and out of, and over, the hive, this com- 

 motion being most observable in the early morning, before the 

 bees are flying. After this they quiet down, and may work, 

 but do so in a half-hearted way ; those returning to the hive 

 will often linger on the alighting-board, as if undecided whether 

 to enter or not ; in spring, little or no pollen is brought in (7) ; 

 and drones are allowed to remain in the hive after other stocks 

 have expelled theirs (8). When such signs are observed, narrow 

 the entrance to |-inch wide to prevent robbing (140) ; examine 

 the hive when other bees are not flying , and if there is no queen , 

 or if there are no eggs nor brood present, except possibly those 

 of a drone breeding queen or a fertile worker (7), the stock 

 should be re-queened or else united to another stock (133) 

 possessing a queen. 



When a fresh queen is required for any of the reasons stated 

 (144) , she may be procured from another 

 146. Providing apiary, care being taken to select one from 

 ftueens. a stock which is unrelated to the stock 



for which she is intended, or the bee- 

 keeper may have one or more queens in readiness in nucieua 

 hives (148) , from which he can take a queen ; or he may utilise 



E 



