214 
Tllli IMVK AND IIONIOY-niCK. 
Wo have yet, liowcvcr, to dcscribo under what circum. 
stances the majority of hives become queenless. More 
qucetis, whose loss cannot he supplied by the bees., perish 
when they leave the hive to meet the drones, than in all 
other ways. Alter the departure of the first swarm, the 
mother-stock and all the after-swarms have young queens 
which must leave the hive for impregnation ; their larger 
size and slower flight make them a more tempting j)rey 
to birds, while others are dashed, by sudden gusts of wind, 
against some hard object, or blown into the water: for, 
W'ith all their queenly dignity, they are not exempt from 
mishaps common to the humblest of their race. 
In spite of their caution to mark the position and ap- 
pearance of their habitation (p. 125), the young queens 
frequently make a fatal mistake, and are destroyed, by 
attempting to enter the wrong hive. This accounts for 
the notorious fact, that ignoraht bee-keepers, with forlorn 
and rickety liives, no two of which look just alike, aie 
often more successful than those whose hives are of the 
best construction. The former—unless their hives are ex¬ 
cessively crowded—lose but few queens, while the latter 
lose them almost in exact proportion to the taste and skill 
which induced them to make their hives of uniform size, 
shape, and color. 
I first learned the full extent of the danger of crowded 
Apiaries, in the Summer of 1854. To protect my hives 
against extremes of heat and cold, they were ranged, side 
a tract of spermatic JUaments." While the Intestines of those queens contiilnoa 
only a little iitnpid oxcreinont, the rectum of a worker, oxnmiood at the same lime, 
wae filled with on enormous quantity of o dark, offensive fubstnace. 
Those drone-laying colonics were supplied with queens fVoin other stocks, which 
when opened In April, were found to have rolsofl queens in February. One queen 
was ioylng worker, ond the other drone-eggs, and the former must have boon Ini- 
prognated in March, and probably by some of the brood of the dione-laylng 
queens. Might not a few drouc-laying queens bo kept to advuutugo iu hu-ge 
Apiaries? 
