222 
THE HIVE AND HONEY-BEE. 
stands with a strong stock, when the bees are actively 
gathering stores; or bees brought from a distance may be 
added to it * If it raises a queen before she can be 
seasonably impregnated, she may be killed, and more 
brood-comb given to them. The smallest stocks may thus 
be preserved until the drones appear, by which time they 
may be made as strong as is desired. The stocks deprived 
of their queens should be managed in the same way. By 
this device, every queenless stock, however feeble, that 
survives the Winter, may be nursed into profitable 
strength. 
A vigilant eye should be kept upon every colony that 
has not an impregnated queen; and when its queen is 
about a week old it should be examined, and if she has 
become fertile, she will usually be found supplying one of 
the central combs with eggs. If neither queen nor eggs can 
be found, and there are no certain indications that she is 
lost, the hive should be examined a few days later, for some 
queens are longer in becoming impregnated than others, 
and it is often difficult to find an unimpregnated one, on 
account of her adroit way of hiding among the bees. 
If the Apiarian relics on artificial swarming, he may 
deprive his queens of their wings, as soon as they are im¬ 
pregnated.! In a large Apiary, where many swarms 
might otherwise come off together, this will greatly di- 
• If a common Live la found, In the Spring, to be very much reduced in numbers, 
It can be recruited In the last two ways, provided Ithaa a healthy queen. If It has 
no queen, and la not sufficiently strong to justify giving It one from a weaker stock, 
the hees should be joined to another colony, and the hive reserved, with Its combs, 
for future swarms. It should, however, be kept out of the reach of the bee-moth, 
and before it is used again a few of the central combs should be broken out, to see 
that it is not infested by worms. 
+ Virgil speaks of clipping the wings of queens, to prevent them from escaping 
with a swarm. John Mills (1766) quotes the following from an account published 
of the sheep of Spain:— 41 The number of bee-hives kept in Spain is incredible. I 
am almost ashamed *.o give under my hand, that I knew a parish priest who had 
five thousand hives. The bees suck all their honey from tho aromatic 'lowers 
