214 THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 



We have yet, however, to describe under what circum- 

 stances the majority of hives become queenless. More 

 queens, whose loss cannot be supplied iy the bees, perish 

 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, 

 ^vith all their queenly dignity, they are not exempt from 

 mishaps comroon to the humblest of their race. 



In spite of their caution to mark the position and ap- 

 pearance of their habitatiori (p. 125), the young queens 

 frequently mahe a fatal mistake, and are destroyed, by 

 attempting to enter the wrong hive. This accounts lor 

 the notorious fact, that ignorant bee-keepers, 'sritli forlorn 

 and rickety hives, no two of which look just ahkc, arc 

 often more successful than those whose hives are of the 

 best construction. The former — unless their hives are ex- 

 cessively crowded — ^lose but few queens, while the latter 

 lose them almost in exact proportion to the taste and skill 

 which induced them to make their hives of uniform size, 

 shape, and color. 



I first learned the ftill extent of the danger of crowded 

 Apiaries, in the Summer of 1854. To protect my hives 

 against extremes of heat and cold, they were ranged, side 



a trace, of spermatio jaammU." While the intestines of these queens contained 

 only a little limpid excrement, the rectum of a worker, examined at the same time 

 was flMed with an enormons quantity of a dark, offensive substance. 

 • These drone-laying colonies were supplied with queens from other stocks, which, 

 when opened in April, were found to have raised queens in February. One queen 

 was laying worker, and the other drone-eggs, and the former must have been im- 

 pregnated in March,- and probably by some of the brood of the drone-laying 

 queens. Might not n few drone-laying queens be kept to advantage in large 

 Apiaries? 



