28 THE COTTAGE AND FARM BEE KEEPER. 



must be removed elsewhere, and the bees imprisoned for a short 

 space; but this will very rarely happen, except where the bee 

 master is most culpably negligent. 



It sometimes happens, as I have hinted above, that the queen bee 

 is imprisoned among her subjects in the glass. If so — and it will be 

 known by the comparative silence which reigns within, and the little 

 disposition of the bees to flyaway, as well as, (though after a longer 

 interval, and then not always,) by the restlessness of the bees in the 

 old stock — the glass must be restored to the parent hive till the queen 

 is ascertained to have descended ; or, better still, the queen may be 

 hunted for in the glass, and her person secured. In this case, she 

 might be destroyed, if found to be small in size, and thought to be old; 

 but this must be done with caution, especially if the hive from which 

 she is taken be intended for a permanent stock; that is, to remain at least 

 over the following winter ; for a queen may often be lost from a hive 

 without the bees ever perceiving it, in which case, she must inevitably 

 perish. If not destroyed, let the queen be put on the alighting board 

 of the hive, into which she will speedily enter. 



"Where brood is found in the glass, if in any quantity, it ought to be 

 returned ; otherwise, the sacrifice of it is of little importance. 



As soon as August is' fairly over, it will be time to prepare for 

 winter, by weighing the hives, and supplying any deficiency in the 

 weight by a timely and liberal supply of food. The new stock ought 

 to weigh upwards of 23 lbs. of contents, and the old one about the 

 same, for the difference in age in the one case will about equalize, in 

 weight of comb, &c, the difference in the other ; that is, if one hive 

 contains old, and therefore heavy comb, the other will probably con- 

 tain a greater abundance of pollen, as well as more comb, than the 

 other. Should either hive weigh less than the figure above specified, 

 (and each ought to weigh very much more, than this,) feed copiously, 

 and in the shortest possible space of time, (in order that the exciting 

 cause may be the quicker removed, when bees consume more food 

 than usual,) either with honey or prepared food, full directions for the 

 making of which will be found further on in this book. 



The business of the apiary being now concluded for the year, all 

 that remains to be done is to shelter the hives from the winter sun, 

 should they be at all exposed to its influence. This part of bee 

 management, namely, the wintering of bees, has rarely been properly 



