w flushing. April 2, 1861. u journal. 
April 2. examined 5 stocks of Italian bees imported by mr
[illegible], brought in the original [illegible], hollow section,
of trees. only one contained any live bees. died from want of
skill after they were landed, put in a greenhouse, many died there
on glass, fed them out of doors so as to attract robbers. one had
a dead queen with say one hundred bees, these had starved. 
the one with living bees had less than a pint, saw sealed brood. 
3rd put the hive with live bees in a dry cellar until i could transfer
it. 4th cut out the combs, found a living queen, cells had a few
eggs, never handled anything in my life with so much care. if the
queen had been killed should have felt worse than any regicide
ever felt, for they mean to kill royalties. just when i almost despaired
of finding a live queen, another i had seen some eggs in the cells i
caught sight of Italian or Ligurian royalty. strange that so
small a creature should be capable of producing so exciting an effect. 
i carefully put her in a queen cage, cut out the only comb that had any
brood, and put the small colony in the cellar. 4th very early fearful
that the queen might become chilled, found that the bees had left her,
took her out of her cage with fear and trembling, she was stiff, could hardly
move, warmed her with my breath, returned her to her colony. 5th colony
kept in cellar still. 6th 7th transferred a colony of common bees,
removed queen. robbers [illegible] them and they have long in finding out
the queen was gone, gave them Italian in a cage crowded round it. gave
Italians [illegible] queen in cage, crowded round it. let common queen out
missed her. feared that she had got back to her colony, near sunset
let out Italian queen, very carefully, bees welcomed her. now i have done
all i could for her and most patiently [illegible] the result. i ought not to have
let the common queen out of her cage, but did not think that she would take
wing. 8th put hive with Italians for safety on roof of piazza, did not know
that it had been painted within a week, weather stormy, multitudes of
bees died, within hive, crawling out. paint paint paint. 9th removed
hive to another location, bees still dying. 10th. � or more have died. 11th
bees doing well now, saw queen all right. [illegible] in pm for [illegible]



