LOSS OF QUEENS. 
239 
some other. If much time has elapsed before the 
loss, they remain, unless standing on the same bench 
with another. On a separate stand they continue 
their labor, but a large swarm diminishes rapidly, and 
seldom fills an ordinary-sized hive. One singular cir- 
cumstance attends a swarm that is constructing combs 
without a queen. I have never seen it noticed by 
any one, and may not always be the case, but every 
instance that has come under my notice, I have so 
found it. That is, four-fifths of the combs are drone- 
cells ; why they thus construct them is another sub- 
ject for speculation, from which I will endeavor in 
this instance to refrain. 
A SUGGESTION AND AN ANSWER. 
It has been suggested as a profitable speculation, 
“ to hive a large swarm without a queen, and give 
them a piece of brood-comb containing eggs, to rear 
one, and then as soon as it is matured, deprive them 
of it, giving them another piece of comb, and con- 
tinue it throughout the summer, putting on boxes for 
surplus honey. The bees having no young brood to 
consume any honey, no time will be lost, or taken to 
nurse them, and as a consequence- they will be enabled 
to store large quantities of surplus honey.” 
This appears very plausible, and to a person with- 
out experience somewhat conclusive. If success de- 
pended on some animal whose lease of life was a little 
longer, it would answer better to calculate in this way. 
But as a bee seldom sees the anniversary of its birth- 
day, and most of them perish the first few months of 
