LOSS OP THE QUEEN. 283 



anxiety for her helpless children ! If however, the queen 

 is carefully removed, so that the colony is not disturbed, it is 

 sometimes a day, or even more, before they realize their 

 loss. How do they first become aware of it ? Perhaps 

 some dutiful bee feels that it is a long time since it has seen 

 its mother, and anxious to embrace her, makes diligent 

 search for her through the hive ! The intelligence that she 

 cannot anywhere be found, is soon noised abroad, and the 

 whole community are at once alarmed. At such times, in- 

 stead of calmly conversing by merely touching each other's 

 antennae, they may be seen violently striking as it were, 

 their antennte together, and by the most impassioned demon- 

 strations manifesting their agony and despair. I once re- 

 moved a queen in such a manner as to cause the bees to 

 take wing and fill the air in search of her. She was re- 

 turned in a few minutes, and yet, on examining the colony, 

 two days after, I found that they had actually commenced 

 the building of royal cells, in order to raise another! The 

 queen was unhurt and the cells were not tenanted. Was 

 this work begun by some that refused for a long time to 

 believe the others, when told that she was safe ? Or was it 

 begun from the apprehension that she might again be re- 

 moved ? 



Every colony which has a new queen, should be watched, 

 in order that the Apiarian may be seasonably apprised of 

 her loss. The restless conduct of the bees, on the evening 

 of the day that she fails to return, will at once inform the 

 experienced bee-master of the accident which has befallen 

 his hive. If the bees cannot be supplied with another queen, 

 or with the means of raising one, if an old swarm it must 

 be broken up, and the bees added to another stock ; if 

 a new swarm it must always be broken up, unless it can be 

 supplied with a queen nearly mature, or else they will build 



