THE QUEEN-BEE. 113 



Make entrance very small in winter, and enlarge it as 

 required in summer. 



Jransfer a new swarm both to the hive and stand they 

 are to occupy permanently on the day they issue from the 

 old hive. 



Distance between your hives should be about three feet. 



Fighting. If you perceive any hive being robbed, close 

 the entrance for twenty-four hours; if the fighting con- 

 tinues, remove the hive some distance away. 



Luck. No such thing is known in bee-management, 

 it is care and forethought. 



Try again. If you are disgusted with the old system 

 and have given it up in despair, let us persuade you to try 

 again ; you may depend upon having a generous return for 

 your trouble if you follow the calling of a bee-farmer 

 faithfully. 



THE QUEEN-BEE. 



The queen-bee, very appropriately called in Germany 

 the mother-bee, is the only perfectly developed female bee 

 in the hive. She is easily known from the other bees by 

 the greater length of her body, her peculiar short wings, 

 and the longer legs are not provided with baskets like 

 the worker bee. The abdomen tapers to a point, and her 

 sting is curved, but she is recognised by her slow majestic 

 walk, and, when she moves about the comb, her subjects 

 form in a circle round her. 



A queen in the height of the working season is esti- 

 mated to lay from 1,500 to 2,000 eggs each day, and 

 every year is supposed to produce at least 100,000 bees. 

 This enormous number is probably not an over-estimate. 



It is remarkable that the homage or deference paid to 

 the queen is not lavished on an unwedded or unfertile 

 queen, for the inmates of the hive appear to know the 



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