68 
BED-CULTURE. 
them. On their excursions, they are liable to be lost from 
various causes; or, on returning, they may enter the wrong 
hive and be 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 agitated 
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 another 
hive and give them, letting the other rear a queen for them- 
selves. Brood might be given to the queenless colony and 
Iqt it rear its own ; but it would be about six weeks before 
they could 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 cells 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 
