BEE MANIPULATION. 



[Ch. v. 



when, having observed that his bees have ceased to 

 carry in pollen, he has thereby received warning that 

 the queen has been lost at some juncture when no suc- 

 cessor to the throne could be provided. Such a hive 

 has entered on a downward course and will dwindle 

 away entirely, unless a queen should be given to it, or 

 else some combs containing young brood not many days 

 old (see page i6). By the latter method the bee-keeper 

 will gain an opportunity of seeing the bees set about 

 their wonderful process of raising a queen from the 

 brood thus provided for them. If neither means is 

 practicable the colony must be united to some other hive. 

 An ingenious little contrivance has been brought into 

 use by continental bee-keepers, especially by Herr 



Kleine, a German 

 pastor, to prevent the 

 destruction alluded 

 to. It consists of a 

 small wire cage (in 

 fact, a pipe cover), as 

 represented in the 

 annexed illustration, 

 placed over a queen 

 cell to protect it from 

 the mother bee's ani- 

 mosity. It also serves 

 to prevent the young 

 queen, when hatched,- 



/^^l^fc^^ 



