32 
piece of worker comb containing eggs, as in the Other 
case, and proceed. 
SIGNS INDICATING LOSS OF ftl EEN. 
In swarming time bees frequently lose their queen by 
some accident or deformity, that causes her to fall in the 
grass or weeds, and should the bees not find her they 
may cluster on some branch for a few moments, but will 
eventually go back to the parent hive again. This they 
will do when the queen is unable to leave the hive at the 
time of swarming, so it will be best to look carefully in 
front of your hives in the grass should your bees act as 
above described, as you may there find the lost queen. 
Queens frequently meet with accidents during the 
year that incapacitate them for the duties of the hive, 
or otherwise get destroyed. IV hen this loss becomes ap- 
parent there will be great commotion in the hive ; the 
bees will rush from one part of the hive to another out 
in the open air and back again, as if conscious of their 
situation, without a mother to perpetuate their species. 
When becoming fully satisfied of her loss, they settle 
down to a quietness not observed in thrifty colonics. And 
immediately commence operations to remedy the loss, by 
constructing queen cells in different parts of the hive, 
sometimes starting as many as fifteen or twenty of them, 
and if they have worker eggs or larva ot the worker 
kind, under three days old, they will usually succeed in 
their efforts. But should it be in a season when there is 
no drones to fertilize them, it will be useless ; but their 
efforts will still be continued with zeal in this respect 
while their excursions to the field grow less and less. 
They daily decrease in numbers, lose their energies, and 
the moth miller usually enters and takes possession of 
