BEE-CULTURE. 
08 
wrong hive and bo lost; as setting hens whose nests are 
crowded together two hens will get on one nest and leave the 
eggs of the other to perish. When a colony has lost its queen 
it will manifest a good deal of excitement, running in an agi- 
tated manner about the entrance, and over the front of the 
hive, especially in the morning ; but in two or three days 
this will generally cease, and I know of no other external 
sign by which their condition may be certainly ascertained ; 
so that it is well to keep a look out for such signs at the time 
the young queens would be flying out; that is, in old hives 
about fifteen days after the first swarm leaves, and the casts 
about six days after they come off. Of course the time may 
vary from these rules several days. If a colony has lost its 
queen at such a time it has no brood and cannot produce an- 
other. To supply it run a little swarm into it, if there is no 
queen on hand for this purpose ; or take a queen from an- 
other hive and give them, letting the other rear a queen for 
themselves. Brood might be given to the queenless colony 
and lctit rear its own ; but it would be about six weeks before 
they TOfild have any brood hatching from the queen they 
would raise. The hive would be too much weakened by this 
time. Swarms have no brood hatching for twenty-three days 
after they issue ; by this time they will generally be reduced 
in numbers one-third. If movable comb hives are used they 
can be opened out, and five or six days after the time the 
young queens should have been fertilized, and if eggs can be 
found in the cells, all is right. But if a box hive is used 
you will have to wait fifteen or twenty days, until the brood 
will have time to be capped ; then invert the hive ; smoke 
the bees down off the combs ; press the combs gently apart, 
until you can see a considerable distance down between them. 
If there is any brood there it can be seen. One will soon 
learn to distinguish between brood capped over and honey 
capped. If queens are lost in swarming-time there will gen- 
erally be some hives that have given off swarms a week pre- 
vious, and have young queens not hatched ; in such a case 
get one of the colls and put in the queenless hive. Either 
put it in the lower end of the combs, so it will not fall out, 
or insert it in a hole in the top where the bees will gather on 
it. If she has hatched there will be a hole in the end of the 
cell through which she has emerged. Sometimes they will 
have a queen that is not fertile; or if they have been long 
