40 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. 



resolve to have younger queens. Royal cells are prepared, 

 eggs are set in them, and then comes the dethronement 

 of the old ones. Frequently these old queens are cast out 

 alive. I have known one such crawl hack into the hive 

 four or five times. It was a sad end ; but the bees mer- 

 cifully abstained from hurting her. The welfare of the 

 community demanded her removal, and a worthy successor 

 in her place. Hence they cast her out, and reared another. 

 • If they had let her die a natural death, it might have 

 taken place when there were no eggs in the hive, and thus 

 doomed the whole colony to extinction. 



In times of threatened poverty and starvation, a queen 

 may lay many eggs, but the bees often wisely remove them, 

 rather than consume the little food left for themselves 

 in rearing brood. Frequently brood, half hatched, is torn 

 out of the cells and cast out of the hives by the will of 

 the workers. Commands are often given not to swarm, 

 after arrangements have been made for swarming. When 

 we come to speak of swarming, and explain, the same, it 

 will be seen that it is by the will ^d authority of the 

 working bees that it does or does not happen — weather 

 not interfering. 



