254 
SUMMER. 
soon would have. I continued to watch them witli 
much interest, but somehow, after a few weeks, there 
did not seem to be quite as many bees ; a few days 
later, I was quite sure there was not. I examined the 
combs, and behold there was not a cell containing a 
young bee of any age, not even an egg in any one of 
these old stocks. My visionary anticipations of future 
success speedily retrograded about this time. 
I had, it is true, my new swarms in condition to 
winter, although not quite full ; but the old ones 
were not, and nothing was gained. I had some 
honey, a great deal of bee-bread and old black comb. 
Had I let them alone, and put on boxes, I should 
have probably obtained twenty-five or thirty pounds 
of pure honey from each, worth five times as much as 
what I did get; besides, the old stocks, even with the 
old comb, would have been better supplied with 
both honey and bees; altogether much better, as 
stocks for wintering. Here was a considerable loss, 
merely by not understanding the matter. 
I carefully looked the bees over, and ascertained to 
a certainty that neither of them had a queen. I 
smothered what few there was left in the fall. I then 
knew of no better way. I had been told that the bar- 
barous use of fire and brimstone was part of the 
“ luck ;” that a more benevolent system would cause 
the bees “ to run out,” &c. 
FURTHER EXPERIMENTS. 
Subsequent to these experiments, I thought per- 
haps the jarring of the hives in driving might have 
