126 THE beekeepers' DIRECTORY. 



would increase very fast. It is more difficult to introduce a 

 queen to a colony that has been queenless a long time than it 

 is to one that has been in a queenless condition but a few 

 days. * 



"When to supersede old queens. 

 No queen should be kept over two years. A queen may 

 have been the best in her second year, and in the third sea- 

 son prove to be worthless. Keep your colonies supplied with 

 young queens : that means success. 



Queenless colonies— How to know them. 



There is no way to know that a colony is queenless by out- 

 side appearances during the first few weeks after the loss of 

 the queen. The only way to know certainly is to open the' 

 hive and inake a thorough examination. If no eggs or brood 

 is found in the combs, that would not indicate to a certainty 

 that the colony does not have a queen of some kind. To 

 know certainly that the colony has no queen fertile or unfer- 

 tile, a frame of brood should be placed in the hive, and if 

 they are qneenless, an attempt will be made to rear one from 

 the brood given them, and that is the time to introduce a fer- 

 tile queen. 



If a colony has been without a queen a long time, it is an 

 easy matter for the experienced beekeeper to know it. When 

 passing through the apiary, if a colony does not seem to be 

 working as well as the others tLere must be something wrong. 

 A queenless colon3^ will carry in more or less pollen, but it 

 does not work with that vigor that those colonies do that 

 have queens or those that have been without a queen but a 

 short time. Bees work just as well the first few weeks after 

 being deprived of their queen as they did before she was re- 

 moved. 



How many frames to a hive. 

 It used to be thought that ten L. frames were about the 

 right number for a hive 14| inches wide. But now eight 

 frames, Langstroth size, are considered sufficient, or about 

 the right number. None of the hives in the Bay State Api- 

 ary have over eight Langstroth frames and several have but 

 seven frames, and I think I get the best results from the lat- 



