282 THE BEE KEEPBK'S MANtTAL. 



blow them into the water ; for queens are by no means, 

 exempt from the misfortunes common to the humblest of 

 their race. Very frequently, in spite of all their caution in 

 noticing the position and appearance of their habitation, be- 

 fore they left it, they make a fatal mistake on their return, 

 and are imprisoned and destroyed as they attempt to enter 

 the wrong hive. The precautions which should be used, to 

 prevent such a calamity, have been already described. If 

 these are neglected, those who build their hives of uniform 

 size and appearance, will find themselves losing many more 

 queens than the person who uses the old-fashioned boxes, 

 hardly any two of which look just alike. 



The bees seem to me, to have, as it were, an instinctive 

 perception of the dangers which await their new queen 

 when she makes her excursion in search of the drones, and 

 often gather around her, and confine her, as though they 

 could not bear to have her leave ! I have repeatedly no- 

 ticed them doing this, although I cannot affirm with positive 

 certainly, why they do it. They are usually excessively 

 agitated when the queen leaves, and often exhibit all the 

 appearance of swarming. If the queen of an old stock is 

 lost in this way, her colony will gradually dwindle away. 

 If the queen of an afler-swarm fails to return, the bees very 

 speedily come to .nothing, if they remain in the hive ; as a 

 general rule, however, they soon leave and attempt to add 

 themselves fo other colonies. 



It would be highly interesting to ascertain in what way 

 the bees become informed of the toss of their queen. When 

 she is taken from them under such circumstances as to ex- 

 cite the whole colony, then we can easily see how they 

 find out that she is gone ; for when greatly excited, they 

 j^lways seek first to assure themselves of her safety ; just as 

 a tender mother in time of danger forgets herself in her 



