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keep all our colonies strong and well prepared to guard 
against the robbers and the moth. 
LOSS OF THE QUEEN. 
The queen-bee is frequently lost by accident or de- 
formity, and unless remedied in time, causes the loss of 
the entire colony, as is well knovkn by many bee-keep- 
ers. In swarming time the queen is occasionally lost, 
if her wings are naturally too imperfect, or from some 
accident her once perfect wings have been so injured as 
to make it impossible for her to fly with the swarm ; in 
which case she falls into the grass or weeds, and if the 
bees do not find her, to cluster with her, she is usually 
lost ; the bees may cluster on some branch for a few 
minutes, but will eventually go back to the parent hive. 
Most queens, however, are lost while out to meet the 
drones ; some are born with wings so imperfect that 
they cannot return to their hives ; others are caught by 
birds, or are dashed by high winds against hard objects. 
The larger portion, however, are lost in attempting to 
return to their hive ; although she seems to mark 
the hive and locality, by flying with head towards it for 
several minutes before rising high into the air, yet the 
young queen frequently fails to recognize the exact 
hive, and while attempting to enter the wrong hive, 
mistaking it for her own, is killed by the entrance- 
guarding workers. Such mistakes occur where the 
