FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 115 



not safe to give them one till I do know, so I give them, 

 from another colony, a comb containing eggs and young 

 brood. I make a record of giving them this young brood 

 thus: "May 20, no eg gybr," and in perhaps a week I 

 look to see in what condition they are. If I find queen- 

 cells started I am pretty sure they have no queen. 



QUEENLESS COLONIES. 



WTiat shall be done in that case depends. If the 

 colony is weak, it is at once broken up, brood and bees be- 

 ing given wherever they may be needed, and I heave a 

 sigh of relief to think I am rid of the weakling. If it is 

 strong — an accident may have happened to the queen of a 

 strong colony at the last overhauling — it may be broken 

 up and the brood and bees distributed where they will do 

 the most good, but more likely a weaker colony with a 

 good queen will be united with it. Just possibly, the 

 queen-cells started may be allowed to go on to completion. 



BROOD AS A STIMULANT. 



If it happened that they had a virgin queen when the 

 young brood was given them, the presence of this brood is 

 supposed to stimulate the queen to lay the sooner, and I 

 may find eggs on this later inspection. It may be, how- 

 ever, that I shall find neither eggs nor queen-cell, in which 

 case I consider it probable that they have a queen which 

 has not yet commenced to lay, and they are left for ex- 

 amination later. 



LAYING WORKERS. 



Although laying workers are not so likely to be 

 found early in the year, it is still possible. In some cases 

 the scattered condition of the brood awakens immediate 

 suspicion. This scattered condition is shown in Fig. 59, 

 but the picture does not clearly show how the sealed brood 



