M)SS OF THE QUEEN. 27T 



those attacked are excessively irritable, and will attempt to 

 sfing any person who approaches their hive. When dissected, 

 their stomachs are found slightly discolored by the disease. 

 In the latter stages of this complaint, they not only lose all 

 their irascibility, but appear stupid, an-d may often be seen 

 crawling on the ground, unable to fly. Their abdomens are 

 now unnaturally swollen, and of a much lighter color than 

 usual, being filled with a yellow matter exceedingly offensive 

 to the smell. I have not yet ascertained the cause of this 

 tUsease, 



CHAPTER Xm. 



Loss of the Queen. 



That the queen of a hive is often lost, and that the ruin 

 of the whole colony soon follows, unless the loss is season- 

 ably remedied, are facts which ought to be well known to 

 every bee-keeper. 



The queen sometimes dies of old age or disease, and at a 

 time when there are no worker-eggs, or larvse of a suitable 

 age, to supply her loss. It is evident, however, that but a 

 small portion of the queens which perish, are lost under such 

 circumstances. Either the bees are aware of the approach- 

 ing end of their aged mother, and take seasonable precau- 

 tions to rear a successor ; or else she dies very suddenly, so 

 as to leave behind her, brood of a proper age for supplying 

 her loss. It is seldom that a queen in a hive strong in 

 numbers and stores, dies at a period of the year when 

 there is no brood from which another can be reared, or 

 24 



