LOSS OF THE QUEEN. 
219 
and the bees added to another colony; a new swarm, 
unless a queen nearly mature can be given to it (p. 149), 
should always be broken up. If the new colony is large, 
it will be better, instead of breaking it up, to give it a 
queen from some old stock which can easily niise another. 
It; however, the Apiarian uses movable-comb hives, and 
pursues the nucleus system (p. 188), ho Avill always have 
queens on hand for all emergencies. 
Huber has proved that bees do not ordinarily transport 
the eggs of the queen from one cell to another. I have, 
however, in several instances, known them to carry worker- 
eggs into royal cells. Mr. Wagner put some queeidess 
bees, brought from a distance, into empty combs that had 
lain for two years in his garret. When supplied with 
brood, they raised their queen in this old comb! Mr. 
Richard Colvin, of Baltimore, and other Apiarian friends, 
have communicated to me instances almost as striking. 
Having described the precautions necessary to prevent 
the loss of queens, it remains to show how the bee-keeper 
can ascertiiin that a hive is queenless, and how he can 
remedy such a misfortune. As soon as the bees begin to 
tiy briskly in the Spring, a stock which does not industri¬ 
ously gather pollen,* or accept of rye flour, and which 
refuses clean water, given to it in an empty comb, is 
almost certain to have no queen, or one that is not fertile— 
unless it is on the eve of being destroyed by worms, or 
of perishing from starvation. 
A stock is sure to be queenless, if, after taking its first 
Spring-flight, the bees, by roaming, in an inquiring manner, 
in and out of the hive (p. 67), show that some great 
* “Mr. Randolph Rotors, of Philadolphln, had a stock which ho was satisfied 
was queenloss, as the beds did not carry iu pollon for 28 days. I put a queen into 
tlio hive, ho holding a watch in his hand, and in 8)^ luinutos from Iho time she was 
introduced, a beo was socu to enter wilii pollon on its legal Wo both observed 
the oninmce for some time, and saw many boos carry in pollen."—R. J. Maiiam. 
