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 raise another. 
If) however, the Apiarian uses movable-comb hives, and 
pursues the nucleus system (p. 188), he will always have 
queens on hand for all emergencies. 
Iluber 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 queenless 
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 ascertain that a hive is queenless, and how he can 
remedy such a misfortune. As soon as the bees begin to 
fly 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 
* u Mr. Randolph Peters, of Philadelphia, had a stock which ho was satisfied 
was queenless, as the bees did not carry in pollen for 28 days. I put a queen into 
the hive, he holding a watch In Ids hand, and in minutes from the time she was 
introduced, a bee was seen to enter with pollen on its legs I Wo both observed 
the entrance for some time, and saw many bees carry in pollen.” — P. J Mahan. 
