44, 
super and brood-nest, or between a full super and an empty one that is placg | 
where the other was. Then in abont six or eight hours, more or less, the bees wij 
have gonethrough the escape into the lower hive, and thefull super may be lifted off 
without a bee on the combs, or at most only adozen or so. It may then be carrie 
to the honey-extractor, and the honey taken out and then returned to the beey 
to fill np again. Anyone who has once used a bee-escape will never trouble 
to brush the bees off the combs again. In examining a colony of bees that 
has a super or top story on, the modus operandi is as follows :—First remove 
the flat cover, then lift off the super and place it onthe cover. Thus the bees in 
the super are shut in; if the oilcloth mat is tight as it should be, the bees In 
the super cannot give trouble while examining the brood-nest. This is ay 
advantage of the flat form of cover, as with a gable cover you cannot lay the 
super on it, and if you put it directly on the ground, pieces of grass and 
other matter will stick to the combs. A gable cover allows of more ventila. 
tion than the ordinary flat form, and in very warm weather it is desirable to 
have a well-ventilated hive, as if it is too close and hot the bees will hang in 
a cluster on the outside of the hive during the warmest part of the day, and 
of course they would be better occupied doing some useful work; but in 
places where there are only a few very hot days in the season, the ordinary 
flat cover does very well, and is simpler to make; but whichever cover ig 
adopted it is best to have them all alike, as if some are flat and others gable 
they may have to be changed about, and this will give such a different 
appearance to a hive that the bees will not recognise it. After the super ig 
removed the honey-board must be lifted up by one corner and cleaned of any 
wax that may have been built there, also the wax and propolis must be scraped 
off the tops of frames. A tool like a square trowel or scoop about 2} inches 
wide is very handy for this purpose, as the pieces of wax and propolis have 
only then to be shaken into a tin or the comb bucket. If the bees are doing 
well and gathering honey, the honey-board may be replaced and the super and 
cover put on. 
LOSS OF QUEEN. 
_ It sometimes happens that the bees lose their queen, either through old 
age or by her being killed in some way. If this happens in a hive where there 
are worker eggs and young larve, it does not matter so much, for they will 
be able to raise another in about sixteen days from the time the eggs were 
laid; but it must be noted here that if the worker larve which they use to 
make a queen, is three days old, or six days from the laying of the egg, the 
queen will hatch out in ten days, so the time when the queen will hatch is 
governed by the age of the larve the bees use; and they seem to have a prefer- 
ence for using those that are rather old, but larve one or two days old make the 
‘best queens, as they have the benefit of the royal jelly during the whole of the 
larval period, when an older larva would be to some extent a worker, and the 
queen from such would not be likely to be so good. But it is when the bees 
have no eges or young brood with which to make a queen that the trouble occurs, 
as if the bees have no means of raising a queen, one of their own number will 
take upon itseif the duties of the queen and will lay eggs too, but these eggs 
will only hatch into drones. The presence of fertile workers may be suspected 
if more than one egg is observed in the cells. Sometimes three or four are 
laid irregularly all over the comb, the cells being skipped about and the eggs 
not laid in order as is done by a queen, and if the bees are not given a queen 
they willat last die out. 1t is best to give also several frames of brood with 
some hatching brood among it. 
DRONES. 
The drone is the male bee, and is easily distinguished from the worker or 
queen by being much larger and by not having any sting or being frrnished 
with pollen baskets on its legs. Its duty is to fertilise the queen, the drone 
dying as soon as this is accomplished. A queen when once fertilised does not 
require a second fertilisation, but if through having imperfect wings she is 
