RENEWING QUEENS—TO PRESERVE HONEY COMBS. 89 
RENEWING QUEENS. 
Queens gradually lose their fertility as they advance in 
age, producing fewer eggs and a greater proportion of 
drones. For this reason, after about the fourth year, the 
old ones should be destroyed and new ones substituted. 
In the recent Apiarian Convention at Cleveland, ‘“ Profes- 
‘sor Kirtland said that after the third year the queen was 
nearly worthless, and should be killed, and a fertile 
queen put in her place instantly. So thought Mr. Lang- 
stroth: he said a vigorous fertile queen was worth half a 
swarm. Mr. Sturtevant thought the qzeen as good in the 
third vear as at any time: and at four years he would 
not kill her, unless he knew that he could instantly get a 
young fertile queen in her stead ;—the risk was great, for 
at that season of the year the loss of a week or two was 
a serious loss.” 
“A fertile queen lays her eggs in regular order, com- 
mencing at a point and distributing them in circles, each 
surrounding the first, and on both sides exacily alike. . . 
Sealed worker brood should present a regular, smooth sur- 
face. An irregular brood denotes an unprolific queen.’’* 
A portion of raised oval cells in worker comb shows the 
presence of drone brood, and is objectionable, as indica- 
tive, except in the first laying of a young queen, of ap- 
proaching barrenness. 
TO PRESERVE HONEY COMBS. 
They should be kept in a tightly closed box, and occa- 
sionally exposed to the fumes of burning brimstone to de- 
stroy all eggs of the moth. They are worth at any time 
during the summer almost their weight in gold. 
* Bee Culture, pp. 162, 163. 
