274 THE BEE keeper's MANUAL. 



cumstances the most favorable to their bereaved family. If 

 it were otherwise, the number of colonies which would an- 

 nually perish, would be very much greater than it now is ; 

 for as a number of superannuated queens must die every 

 year, many, or even most of them might die at a season 

 when their loss would necessarily involve the ruin of their 

 whole colony. In non-swarming hives, I have found cells 

 in which queens were reared, not to lead out a new swarm, 

 but to supply the place of the old one which had died 

 in the hive. There are a few well authenticated instances, 

 in which a young queen has been matured before the death 

 of the old one, but after she had become quite aged and 

 infirm. Still, there are cases where old queens die, either 

 so suddenly as to leave no young brood behind them, or at a 

 season when there are no drones to impregnate the young 

 queens,' 



That queens occasionally live to such an age as to become 

 incapable of laying worker eggs-, is now a well established 

 fact. The seminal reservoir sometimes becomes exhausted, 

 before the queen dies of old age, and as it is never replen- 

 ished, (see p. 44,) she can only lay unimpregnated eggs, or 

 such as produce drones instead of workers. This is an 

 additional confirmation of the theory first propounded by 

 Dzierzon. I am indebted to Mr. Wagner for the following 

 facts. " In the Bienenzeitung, for August, 1852, Count 

 Stosch gives us the case of a colony examined by himself, 

 with the aid of an experienced Apiarian, on the 14th of 

 April, previous. The worker-brood was then found to be 

 healthy. In May following, the bees worked industriously, 

 and built new comb. Soon afterwards they ceased to build, 

 and appeared dispirited ; and when, in the beginning of 

 June, he examined the colony again, he found plenty of 

 drone brood in worker cells ! The queen appeared weak 



