FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 



181 



queen had come out with them, and sometimes they 

 would settle and remain clustered for half a day, perhaps 

 several swarms in the cluster. Nothing so very bad 

 about that, if I had only been entirely sure that some 

 time they would return ; but when I stood gazing on a 

 bunch of bees as big as my body when I'm in best con- 

 dition, and meditated upon the chance of there being a 

 young queen in the bunch to incite them to sail off into 

 the ethereal blue — well, it was not the sort of meditation 

 most conducive to composure of mind. 



Inside the hive the program as laid down was pretty 

 generally carried out; at the proper time the excluder 

 was removed, and in due time the young queen was lay- 

 ing. The plan is a good one if one could only induce 

 the bees to refrain from swarming out until only one 



Fig 59. — Brood of Laying Workei-s. 



young queen is left in the hive. I could not induce them 

 to do that. 



