LOSS OF THE QUEEN 257 
501. We have yet, however, to describe under what 
circumstances the majority of hives become queenless. 
More queens, whose loss cannot be supplied by the bees, per- 
ish when they leave the hive to meet the drones, than in all 
other ways. After the departure of the first swarm, the 
mother-stock and all the after-swarms have young queens 
which must leave the hive for impregnation; their larger 
size and slower flight make them a more tempting prey to 
birds, while others are dashed, by sudden gusts of wind, 
against some hard object, or blown into the water: for, 
with all their queenly dignity, they are not exempt from 
mishaps common to the humblest of their race. 
502. In spite of their caution to mark the position and 
appearance of their habitation, the young queens frequently 
make a fatal mistake, and are destroyed, when attempting to 
enter the wrong hive. 
This accounts for the fact that ignorant bee-keepers, with 
forlorn and rickety hives, no two of which look just alike, 
are sometimes more successful than those whose hives are 
of the best construction. The former—unless their hives 
are excessively crowded—lose but few queens, while the 
latter lose them in almost exact proportion to the taste and 
skill which induced them to make their hives of uniform 
size, shape and color (356). 
508. We first learned the full extent of the danger of 
crowded Apiaries, in the Summer of 1854. To protect our 
hives against extremes of heat and cold, they were ranged, 
side by side, over a trench, so that, through ventilators in 
their bottom-boards, they might receive, in Summer, a 
cooler, and in Winter, a much warmer air, than the exter- 
nal atmosphere. By this arrangement—which failed en- 
tirely to answer its design—many of our colonies became 
queenless, and we soon ascertained under what circumstan- 
ces young queens are ordinarily lost. 
From the great uniformity of the hives in size, shape, 
17 
