1074 



BEE -CULTURE. 



Fro. 1448.— Cluster of Swarming Bees Hanging 

 io a Branch. 



Fig. 1449.— Portion of Honey-comb, with Eggs 

 Occupying the Cells. 



(One of the cells 

 queen.) 



has been opened by the 



;. clip the wings of fche queen, which 

 will then hop out on the ground, 

 and may stay near the entrance 

 until the swarm begins to come 

 back, when she will be fctttf acted 

 by their humming, and go in with 

 them. Mr. Root, from whom we 

 quote, thinks, after watching their 

 maneuvers many times, that in 

 such cases about \half the time 

 the queen gets away and is lost, 

 whereupon the bees re-enter the 

 hive and do little or nothing until 

 a new queen is hatched, and 

 then swarm again, which is a 

 great loss, for the use of a good 

 queen to a colony for a week or 

 ten days in swarming-time might 

 be equivalent to a swarm of bees. 

 To obviate this difficulty, Mr. 

 Quimby invented what has been 

 called the "queen yard," a 

 twenty-inch square box four 

 inches high, with tin nailed on 

 the top edges of all the sides, 

 and projecting inward 1£ inches, 

 and so placed before the hive 

 that the entrance opens directly 

 into one side of the " queen yard." 

 The bees, when at work, come 

 out into it and take wing. When 

 they swarm they take wing with- 

 out any trouble ; but the queen, 

 after trying to fly, will try to 

 crawl up the sides, and cannot 

 on account of the tin ledge. She 

 can only get back into the hive, 

 which she will be sure to do 

 about as soon as the bees get 

 back. 



It is also customary to restrain 

 the queen by means of slots per- 



