240 
SUMMER. 
their existence, it is bad economy. It will be found 
th'at the largest amount of our surplus honey is ob- 
tained from our prolific stocks. Therefore it is all-im- 
portant that every swarm and stock has a queen to 
repair this constant loss. 
A DISPUTED QUESTION. 
We now approach another disputed point in natural 
history, relative to the queen leavin^at any time ex- 
cept when leading out a swarm. Most writers say that 
the young queen leaves the hive, and meets her para- 
mour, the drone, on the wing. Others deny this posi- 
tively, having watched a whole summer without seeing 
her highness leave. Consequently they have arrived 
at the very plausible and apparently consistent con- 
clusion, that nature never intended it to be so, since 
it must happen at a time when the existence of the 
whole family depends entirely on the life of the queen. 
The stock at such times contains no eggs or larvae, 
from which to rear another, if she should be lost. 
“ The chances at such times of being devoured by 
birds, blown away by the winds, and other casualties, 
are too many, and it is not probable the Creator 
would have so arranged it.” But facts are stubborn 
things; they will not yield one jot to favor the most 
“finely-spun hypothesis;” they are most provokingly 
obstinate, many times. When man, without the 
necessary observation, takes a survey through ani- 
mated nature, and finds with scarcely an exception 
that male and female are about equal in number, he 
is ready, and often does conclude that one bee among 
