326 
BEES AND BEE-KEEPING, 
easily discoverable nor absolutely constant in their 
operation. The problem has, therefore, not unnaturally, 
been difficult of solution, and productive of opinions 
no less conflicting than the methods followed are 
diverse. The Author has a distinct preference, as will 
be seen in the sequel ; but he desires to represent 
fairly all that each system can accomplish, and so, in 
a short historical sketch, will, as far as practicable, give 
each advocate an opportunity of speaking for himself. 
We have recently considered why every colony 
possesses but one laying queen, and a second is never 
tolerated in one and the same brood-nest, except 
in the comparatively rare instance of an old mother 
in her fading time having a daughter raised, 
fecundated, and actually laying by her side some 
short period before her absolute supercession. It 
is so unusual nowadays to allow a queen to go 
on to the natural period of decay that “ two 
queens in a hive ” is indeed a rare sight, while it 
hardly bears evidence to the most advanced manage- 
ment. This being so, it is, of course, impossible 
to introduce a queen to a stock until that stock is 
already queenless. Experiments having no practical 
issue, in which the stock, e.g., has been divided by a 
perforated diaphragm, in order that a second queen 
might be given to one half, while the old one remained 
in the other, have shown by their failure that this 
instinct, demanding a single queen in each undivided 
brood-nest, cannot be set aside. 
Nearly lOO years since, Huber* found that when a 
* “Nouvelles Observations sur les Abeilles,” Vol. I., page I9<^ 
unabridged edition. 
