LOSS OF QUEENS. 
31 
keeper should glance at his hives every morning during the time 
of greatest danger, which is about the third week from the first 
swarm. If any colony seem unusually excited, see it again in 
the evening and next morning, and, if still “ suspicious,” go to a 
stock that has swarmed within a week, invert it, drive the bees 
down with smoke and cut out a sealed queen-cell, which may be 
given to the queenless stock by fitting it into one of the brood- 
combs (see “Nucleus Swarming,”) near the cluster of bees. 
Care must be taken not to injure the cell by pressure, or to leave 
its point resting upon the comb. But, if such cell cannot be 
found, then take instead, from a stock having a fertile queen, a 
small piece of worker comb containing eggs and larvae. Give 
this to the queenless stock by fitting it into an opening in one of 
the brood-combs or fastening it between two of them up among 
the bees. If fastened between the combs, let the cells contain- 
ing the eggs be placed in a vertical position with their open ends 
downward. With movable comb hives, the case is different. 
By their use, we can easily ascertain the condition of a colony at 
any time. In such hives, all stocks that have unimpregnated 
queens should be examined about the twelfth day from the time 
the first swarm loft, and, if no eggs are found in the combs by 
the eighteenth day, the stock is probably queenless. Give them 
a reserve fertile queen or queen-cell, if either is at hand. If not, 
take from another hive a frame of worker comb containing eggs 
and young brood, and place it near the centre of the queenless 
hive. Queens ordinarily lose their fertility or die of old age, 
when from three to four years old. If this happens in winter or 
early spring, break up the colony, before its stores tempt other 
