OF MANAGING BEES. 85 



could be caught, and we had not taken the precaution to 

 preserve extra queens that season ; hence, a good old hive 

 of bees must be sacrificed, in order to preserve the one vfe 

 had been experimenting -with. But the whole object was not 

 to save one feeble swarm by sacrificing a good one. It was 

 to follow up our system of imanagemcnt, in compelling the 

 bees to make themselves a queen, when their owner knows 

 they need one. The hive selected was takea from the stand 

 at noonday ; we inverted it and took out all the comb, 

 honey and bees, (the bees went into the adjoining hives.) 

 This done, we selected brood-comb of workers only, con- 

 taining eggs, larvse, and chrysalides, in all their stages ; placed 

 the comb carefully in a drawer, in its natural position ; and 

 inserted the same into the chamber of the hive, so that the 

 bees could repair their loss, by making a queen in their own 

 way, and according to the directions in the foregoing chap- 

 ters. They did so, and on the eighth day they had a queen. 

 And here we ought to record the fact, that the bees, on the 

 third day after they were supplied with young broods, 

 resumed all their natural habits, labored with seemingly 

 redoubled vigilance, obtained a complete victory over the 

 moths, expelled every one of them frorii their tenement, and 

 protected their hive as usual. 



On expelling the bees from the comb on the 21st day of 

 Augus1|!(queen eight days old,) we found eggs in some of 

 the cells, an^the bees changing them into brood-comb as 

 fast as possible. Notwithstanding their entire overthrow 

 was for a while predicted, yet, by furnishing them grubs of 

 workers, they have supplied themselves with a healthy and 

 fruitful queen, and we had the satisfaction- of seeing them 

 replenish their stock with y<ftng bees, which was already 

 somewhat reduced by the loss of many of their companions, 

 by being caught by the birds, and lost by other casualties, 

 8 



