ENEMIES OF BEES. 97 



things is very rarely experienced with the English, or black bee, 

 but in foreign varieties it is more general, especially so with 

 Cyprians and Syrians. The means of detecting their presence 

 is easy. Although the hive is queenless, eggs will be found in both 

 worker and drone-cells, but not laid, as with a fertile queen, 

 regularly in one large patch, but scattered about, very rarely more 

 than four cells in close contiguity being used. Even in those cells 

 which are occupied by eggs they are not laid in a uniform 

 manner : here an egg is stuck on the side of the cell, instead of on 

 the bottom ; the next cell has four or five — this latter circumstance 

 is frequently observed where a prolific queen is in the hive, and 

 there are not sufficient workers to cover the number of eggs she 

 has the power of laying — ^the eggs are found in both drone and 

 worker-cells at times when it is not natural for drone eggs to be 

 laid. These eggs, after hatching and being capped over, are in 

 all cases capped as with drone-cells, although they may be laid in 

 worker-cells. The drones thus produced are smaller than the 

 natural ones, no doubt on account of their cramped condition in so 

 small a cradle as a worker-cell. The easiest way of getting rid 

 of these pests is to unite the colony to a strong stock having a 

 fertile queen ; after a few days it can be divided, and a fertile 

 queen given, or a queen-cell, or brood and eggs ; but in all cases 

 this latter should be provided. Caging a fertile queen in the hive 

 for two days will usually cause the destruction of fertile workers. 

 Again, we must quote the adage, " prevention is better than cure." 

 Never allow a colony to become queenless without a means of 

 rearing another queen, in which case fertile workers will be 

 unknown. 



153. Finale. — ^All the foregoing instructions have been tested 

 by the writer himself, and have been found the most easy and 

 successful. One might almost wish that the skill required might 

 be imparted to others by writings, yet we know it cannot be ; 

 but much time, trouble, and expense may be saved by listen- 

 ing to the teachings of others, or by reading their writings. 

 "Example is better than precept," but where both precept and 

 example can be obtained, success by following both must be 

 assured. It is this that has made the writer call attention to 

 the good that may be gained by taking a course of instruction 

 from some apiarist of note. By watching his movements, that 

 delicacy of handling, in which so many are deficient, may easily 

 be obtained, and bee-keeping become a pleasure rather than a 

 fear. 



Each of us thinks his hobby the best. If the writer, in the 

 foregoing pages, has allowed any such ideas to be advanced, he 

 apologises. "The astronomer who can unravel the mechanism 

 of the heavens — the chemist who can trace the atomic 

 processes of matter upon earth — or the metaphysician who 



H 



