326 FORTY YEARS AMONG THE BEES. 



After the experience of the preceding winter, you 

 may be sure that effort was made to have colonies more 

 heavily supplied with stores when they went into the 

 cellar — about the middle of November, 1904. 



Before the middle of March some colonies were 

 taken out for a flight, and returned in the evening. I 

 don't know whether that was a good thing or not. Spring 

 was unusually early, and the bees were taken out the last 

 two days of March. They might just as well have been 

 taken out a week sooner ; but I was afraid of its turning 

 cold. To all appearances they came out in most excellent 

 condition. One colony had starved in the cellar, and two 

 had evidently died from queenlessness. Two more were 

 robbed out after coming out of the cellar, the combs 

 showing undoubted proofs of queenlessness in one case, 

 and a drone-laying queen in the other. 



BREAKING UP FAULTY COLONIES. 



As fruit blossoms arc about ready to burst forth, and 

 bees are carrying pollen whenever it is warm enough, I 

 do not expect to lose any more colonies except those that 

 are queenless or have faulty queens. But I do expect to 

 have the satisfaction of breaking up every colony that 

 does not have a good queen, for when I find a colony that 

 is queenless, or one whose queen is more or less a drone- 

 layer, it is no longer any satisfaction to me to nurse it and 

 coax it along for the sake of saying I haven't lost that 

 colony. The real satisfaction is in having it out of the 

 way. Time was when it seemed a nice thing in case of 

 finding a strong colony without a queen to give it young 

 brood and let it rear a queen ; but much observation has 

 shown that a queen reared thus early is only an aggrava- 

 tion nine times out of ten. So when a colony is found 

 that is not queen-right, it is remorselessly broken up, and 

 distributed amongst other colonies, or united with a weak 

 colony having a good queen. The breaking up of such 

 colonies does not make the number less in the long run, 



