266 QUEEN REARING. 



508. And here, if permitted to address a word of friendly 

 advice, we wuuld say to every wife— Do all that you can to 

 make your husband's home a place of attraction. When 

 absent from it, let his heart glow at the thought of retum- 

 hig to its dear enjoyments; as he approaches it, let his 

 cciuuteuance involuntarily assume a more cheerful expres- 

 sion, while his joy-quickened steps proclaim that he feels that 

 there is no place like the cheerful home where his chosen 

 wife and companion presides as its happy and honored 

 Queen. 



' ' The tenth and last species of women were made out of a 

 bee; and happy is the man who gets such a one for his wife. 

 She is full of virtue and prudence, and is the best wife that 

 Jupiter can bestow.'' — Spectator, No. 209. 



509. The neglect of a ccdouy to expel drones (192), 

 "when tliey are dcstmyed in other hives, is always a suspicious 

 sign, and generally an indication either that it has no queen, 

 or else a drone-laying one (134), or drone-laying workers 

 (176). A colony, in these eii'cumstances, will not even 

 destroy the drones of other hives, which may come to it, 

 until a healthy queen has been raised in the hive, and is fer- 

 tilized, and laying worker-eggs. 



510. In opening a queenless hive, the plaintive hum of 

 the Ijees, the listless and intermittent vibrating of their wings, 

 and the total lack of eggs, or young worker brood, tell their 

 condition. 



A Climb, with hatching bees,'" should be given to it from 

 a sliMiiger colony, together with another comb, of eggs and 

 larva?, from the best colony in the a])iary; and the number 

 of its combs should be reduced to suit the size of the clus- 

 ter. 



A better way yet to supply the loss, is to give the colony 

 a queen-cell (103) or a ycnmg queen raised in the manner to 

 be now described. 



* That class of bee-keepers who suppose that all such operations are 

 the "new fangled" iuventions of modern times, will be surprised to learn 

 that Columella, ISOO years ago, recommended strengthening feeble col- 

 onip'i, by ruttiiui out combs from stronger ones, containing workers 

 •'just gnawing out of their .cells." 



