BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 
1 68 
bered here, that the young queen does not generally 
mate until from five to seven days after hiving, and 
that two days later she begins laying. On the twenty- 
first day next following, grey bees are gnawing out ; and 
so the month is made up. This advantageous youth- 
fulness in the cast is shared by the queen, who will 
reach her prime in the succeeding season. On the 
other side, the risk of the queen’s marital flight must 
not be overlooked. A bird’s bill, or a spider’s web, 
or a mistake on her part at her return, may doom 
her colony, unless it be assisted by another queen, or 
ripe queen cell. Eggs are an unsuitable remedy, as 
they so tardily accomplish their purpose ; and, unless 
prevented by foundation (see Chapter V.), during the 
whole period the bees are engaged in raising a new 
queen, drone-comb only will be built. 
Casts often give the bee-keeper an opportunity of 
increasing his stock of queens, for each one of the 
latter may be made to head a nucleus at any spot 
we please, if we give comb (as described under 
“Nuclei”) and a contingent of bees. Here her lady- 
ship mates, to be afterwards disposed of as our 
purposes require. I have many times thus secured 
four or five queens from one cast. But hereafter we 
shall see reasons for supposing that this, although very 
convenient and, ordinarily, most useful, is not, after all, 
the most philosophical way of securing our queens. 
Bees sometimes abscond because their stores have 
run out, and circumstances are desperate. Such have 
usually been called “hunger” or “ vagabond ” swarms. 
The method of preventing this annoyance and loss 
is obvious. After hiving the woebegone subjects of 
