NATURAL INCREASE. 
49 
as to discover one, cage her immediately, continuing 
to so direct your bees that they are about equally 
divided between your hives. If both queens are seen, 
the plan is evident ; but, missing the second, wait 
until one of the lots shows that it finds itself queen- 
less, when they, of course, receive the now liberated 
prisoner. Should both queens escape unseen, still 
all may be well, for fortune may have been on your 
side; but if one lot is beginning to give evident 
tokens of unrest, an examination of the other lot 
may show you both queens balled — i.e.^ inclosed in 
distinct masses of clinging, hissing bees, the size of 
a hen’s egg, or even larger. Removing one of the 
lumps, and transferring it bodily to the orphans, will 
almost invariably put all right. 
All your efforts failing, while it is clear that the bees 
of one hive are queenless, and are beginning to leave, 
they may be shut in, ventilation being provided for. 
Three or four taps then given on the side of the 
hive start a tremendous uproar, when any spare 
queen may be safely passed in at a convenient point, 
the roaring mass for the moment being held back by 
smoke. Next day the hive should be placed in its 
proper position, and the prisoners liberated. In these 
cases, “ perseverance surmounts difficulties,” and it 
may be wise, while one lot is held captive, to again 
shoot the bees having the two queens on to the 
sheet, securing another chance at hunting out the 
one in excess, as the troubled insects separately crawl 
past; and, if sprinkling be judiciously applied, but 
few will take wing. Should the bee-keeper have only 
entered his novitiate, and not yet have acquired the 
