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hive. If in three weeks after swarming, brood cannot 
be found in the middle combs, the stock is probably 
queenless. 
Queens are also lost by accident, they being fre- 
quently crushed in handling combs of hives which ad- 
mit of sliding the combs close to each other, or, while 
lifting them out at the top, without leaving the neces- 
sary space between the combs. In hives of single thick- 
ness, standing out on their summer stand, without ad- 
ditional protection, it occasionally happens, that, even 
if none of the colony freeze, the queen becomes 
chilled, so as to destroy her fertility; a similar result 
follows if a queen is subjected to starvation for two 
days , although in such a case the queen is present in 
the hive, a stock containing such a queen, will soon 
share the disaster of a queenless colony, there being no 
young bees to replenish, and consequently the stock 
dwindles down to nothing. 
Queens also die of old age, when from four to five 
years old. As soon as the fertility of the old queen be- 
gins to fail, the workers usually supercede her by rais- 
ing another ; yet if her lost should occur at a time 
when no brood is found in hive, or there are no drones 
to impregnate the young queen — should they succeed 
in raising one — such colonies will evidently become 
queenless. 
If a stock of bees in the spring does not carry large 
