178 FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 



time the egg was laid till the bee became a gatherer, 

 Clearly, then, only such bees as came from eggs laid five 

 weeks or more before the close of the honey harvest were 

 available as gatherers. Why not have the colony queen- 

 less during this five weeks? So I took away the queen, 

 leaving in the hive three combs, one of which contained 

 eggs and brood in all stages, the other two containing 

 nothing from which queen-cells could be started. 



Once in ten days the comb of young brood with its 

 queen-cells was taken away and a fresh one given them, 

 and at the close of the five weeks, which was about the 

 close of the harvest, the queen was returned. 



NOT A SUCCESS. 



As a preventive of swarming, it was a complete suc- 

 cess. Not one colony thus treated swarmed ; how could 

 they ? As a means of securing a large crop, I think it was 

 an egregious failure ; although I can hardly tell with great 

 definiteness, the season itself being a failure. Possibly 

 the absence of the queen itself had something to do with 

 lessening their stores, but I doubt it. But when all combs 

 of brood but one were taken away, a large force of pros- 

 pective bees were taken away that would have hatched out 

 in from one to twenty-one days. 



If I had allowed four or five frames of brood, chang- 

 ing every ten days, the result might have been quite dif- 

 ferent. Moreover the one frame they did have was, for 

 the most part, filled with brood so young, that little or 

 none of it hatched while in the hive. If I should try any- 

 thing in the same line again, I should keep four or five 

 frames in the hive, and this should be mainly brood well 

 advanced so that much of it would hatch out to replenish 

 the wasting numbers. 



