268 QUEEN REARING. 



508. And here, if permitted to address a word of friendly 

 advice, we would say to every wife — Do all that you can to 

 make your husband's home a place of attraction. When 

 absent from it, let his heart glow at the thought of return- 

 ing to its dear enjoyments; as he approaches it, let his 

 countenance involuntarily assume a more cheerful expres- 

 sion, while his joy-quickened steps proclaim that he feels that 

 there is no place like the cheerful home where his chosen 

 wife and companion presides as its happy and honored 

 Queen. 



' ' The tenth and last species of women were made out of a 

 bee; and happy is the man who gets such a one for his wife. 

 She is full of virtue and prudence, and is the best wife that 

 Jupiter can bestow. ' ' — Spectator, No. 209. 



509. The neglect of a colony to expel drones (193), 

 when tliey are destroyed in other hives, is always a suspicious 

 sign, and generally an indication either that it has no queen, 

 or else a drone-laying one (134), or drone-laying workers 

 (lYG). A colony, in these circumstances, will not even 

 destroy the drones of other hives, which may come to it, 

 until a healthy queen has been raised in the hive, and is fer- 

 tilized, and laying worker-eggs. 



510. In opening a queenless hive, the plaintive hum of 

 the bees, the listless and intermittent vibrating of their wings, 

 and the total lack of eggs, or young worker brood, tell their 

 condition. 



A eomlj, with hatching bees,* should be given to it from 

 a stronger colony, together with another comb, of eggs and 

 larvae, from the best colony in the apiary; and the number 

 of its combs should be reduced to suit the size of the clus- 

 ter. 



A better way yet to supply the loss, is to give the colony 

 a queen -cell (103) or a young queen raised in the manner to 

 be now described. 



* That class of bee-keepers who suppose that all such operations are 

 the "new fangled" inventions of modern times, will be surprised to learn 

 that Columella. 1800 years ago, recommended strengthening feeble col- 

 onies, by rutting out combs from stronger ones, containing workers 

 "just gnawing out of their cells." 



