LOSS OF QUEENS. 
251 
section to winter a good family. This will have to be 
introduced, of course, from another hive, containing a 
queen ; but this belongs to Fall management. 
As respects the time that elapses from the impreg- 
nation of the queen till the commencement of egg lay- 
ing, I cannot tell, but guess itbnight be about two or 
three days. I have driven out the bees twenty-one 
days after the first swarm, when no second swarm had 
issued — the young queen came out on the fourteenth 
day. I found eggs and some very young larvae. When 
it is remembered that eggs remain three days before 
they hatch, it shows that the first of these must have 
been deposited V>ine four or five days. When writers 
tell us the exact time to an hour (46 or 48) from im- 
pregnation to laying, I am willing to admit the thing 
in this case, but feel just as if I would like to ask how 
they managed to find out the fact ; by what sign they 
knew when a queen returned from an excursion, whe- 
ther she had been successful or not, in her amours ; 
or, whether another effort would have to be made; 
and then, how they managed to know exactly when 
the first egg was laid. 
Occasionally a queen is lost at other than the swarm- 
ing season, averaging about one in forty. It ’is most 
frequent in spring; at least it is generally discovered 
then. The queen may die in the winter, and the bees 
not give us any indications till they come out in spring. 
(Occasionally they may all desert the hive, and join an- 
other.) If we expect to ascertain when a queen is lost 
at this season, we must notice them just before dark 
on the first warm days — because the mornings are apt 
