8 THE BEE-KEEPER’S MANUAL, 
provision made for supplying the casual vacancies 
arising not merely from the natural demise of the 
sovereign, but from other causes, especially those 
involving deficient powers or absolute sterility. 
should therefore discountenance any attempt at 
direct interference by the forcible removal of a queen, 
after a prescribed period, as has sometimes been ad- 
vocated.* If, however, it should happen that such 
removal is absolutely necessary, the bees will accept 
a successor as soon as they have discovered their 
loss, which is often not till after the lapse of 
several hours. If all is right the previous agita- 
tion will cease. 
And this leads us on to a curious, if not unique, 
fact in relation to the natural history of the honey- 
bee, which, though probably not unknown to the 
ancients, was re-discovered and promulgated by Schi- 
rach, a member of an apiarian society formed in 
the middle of the last century at Little Bautzen, 
in Upper Lusatia. In contradistinction to the usual 
way in which a young queen is created, preparatory 
to the swarming season, by what is denominated 
the natural process, the details which we are about 
to give show that the same thing may be effected 
by another mode, or, as it is said, artificially. Whether 
these terms, as opposed to each other, are rightly 
applied or not, they at least mark a difference; and 
being thus practically understood, we shall follow 
* The editor has left this recommendation of Mr. Taylor’s unaltered 
though doubting whether he would express himself just in the same 
way at the present date. Still a fair deduction fromthe entire passa me 
is—Don’t remove the queen merely because she is three years old, pat 
do so if she exhibits a falling-off in her laying powers. f 
