196 LOSS OF QUEENS. 



as it is matured, deprive them of it, giving them another 

 piece of comb, and continue it throughout the summer, 

 putting on boxes for surplus honey. There being no 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 an inexperienced per- 

 son somewhat conclusive. If success depended on some 

 animal whose lease of life was a little longer, it would an- 

 swer better to calculate in this way. But as a bee (the 

 queen excepted) seldom sees the anniversary of its birth- 

 day, and most of them perish in a few weeks or months, 

 it is bad economy. It will be found that the largest 

 amounts of surplus honey are obtained from the prolific 

 stocks. Therefore, it is all important that every swarm 

 and stock has a queen to repair this constant loss of bees. 



DISPUTED QUESTIOSr. 



We now approach a disputed point in natural history, 

 relative to the queen leaving at any time, except when 

 leading out a swarm. Most writers say that the young 

 queen leaves the hive, and meets the drone on the wing. 

 Others positively deny this, having watched a whole sum- 

 mer without seeing her leave. Consequently, they have 

 arrived at the very plausible, and apparently consistent 

 conclusion, that nature never intended it to be so, since it 

 must happen at a time when the existence of the whole 

 family depends entirely on the life of the queen. The 

 stock at such times contains no eggs or larvae, from which 

 to rear another, if she should be lost. " The chances at 

 such times of being devoured by birds, blown away by the 

 winds, and other casualties, are too many, and it is not 

 probable the Creator would have so arranged it." But 

 facts are stubborn things; they will not yield one jot. to 

 favor the most " finely spun theory ;" they are most pro- 



