LOSS OF QUEENS. 289 



eome other. If much time has elapsed before the 

 loss, they remain, unless standing on the same bench 

 with another. On a separate stand they continue 

 their labor, but a large swarm diminishes rapidly, and 

 seldom fills an ordinary-sized hive. One singular cir- 

 cumstance attends a swarm that is constructing combs 

 without a queen. I have never seen it noticed by 

 any one, jmd may not always be the case, but every 

 instance that has come under my notice, I have so 

 found it. That is, four-fifths of the combs are drone- 

 ceHs ; why they thus construct them is another sub- 

 ject for speculation,. from which I will endeavor in 

 this instance to refrain. 



A SUGGESTION AND AN ANSWER. 



It has been suggested as a profitable speculation, 

 "to hive a large swarm without a queen, and give 

 them a piece of brood-comb containing eggs, to rear 

 one, and then as soon as it is matured, deprive them 

 of it, giving them another piece of comb, and con- 

 tinue it throughout the summer, putting on boxes for 

 surplus honey. The bees having no young brood to 

 consume any honey, no time will be lost, or taken to 

 nurse them, and as a consequence they will be enabled 

 to store large quantities of surplus honey." 



This appears very plausible, and to a person with- 

 out experience somewhat conclusive. If success de- 

 pended on some animal whose lease of life was a little 

 longer, it would answer better to calculate in this way. 

 But as a bee seldom sees the anniversary of its birth- 

 day, and most Of them perish the first few months of 



