href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@24583@[email protected]#Page_203" class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">203. Precaution against loss of queen by old age. Advantages of this, 204. Certainty and ease of artificial swarming with the new hive. After-swarms prevented if desired, 205. Large harvests of honey and after-swarming impracticable. Danger of too rapid increase of stocks. Importance of understanding his object, by the bee-keeper, 206. The matter made plain, 207. Apiarians dissuaded from more than tripling their stocks in a year. Tenfold increase of stocks attainable, 209. Certain increase, not rapid, most needed. Cautions concerning experiments, 210. Honey, largest yield obtained by doubling colonies. The process, 211. May be done at swarming time. Bees recognize each other by smell, 213. Importance of following these directions illustrated. Process of uniting swarms simplified by the new hive, 214. Very rapid increase of colonies precarious. Mode of effecting the most rapid increase, 215. Nucleus system, 217. Can a queen be raised from any egg? Two sorts of workers, wax workers and nurses, 218. Probable explication of a difficulty, 219. Experimenting difficult work. Swarming season best time for artificial swarming. Amusing perplexity of bees on finding their hive changed, 220. Perseverance of bees. Interesting incident illustrating it, 221. Novel and successful mode of forming nuclei, 223. Mode of managing nuclei, 225. Danger of over-feeding. Increasing stocks by doubling hives, 229. Important rule for multiplying stocks. How to direct the strength of a colony to the rearing of young bees, 230. Proper dimensions of hives. Reasons therefor, 231. Easy construction of the improved hive. Precaution of queen bees in their combats, 234. Reluctance of bees to receive a new queen. Expedient to overcome this. Queen nursery, 235. Mode of rearing numerous queens, 237. Control of the comb the soul of good bee-culture. Objection against bee-keeping answered, 233. No "royal road" to bee-keeping. A prediction, 239.

CHAPTER XI.

Enemies of Bees. Bee-moth, its ravages. Defiance against it, 240. Its habits. Known to Virgil. Time of appearance. Nocturnal in habits, 241. Their agility. Vigilance of the bees against the moth. Havoc of sin in the heart, 242. Disgusting effects of the moth worm in a hive. Wax the food of the moth larvæ. Making their cocoons, 243. Devices to escape the bees. Time of development, 244. Habits of the female when laying eggs. Of the worm when hatched, 245. Our climate favorable to the increase of the moth. Moth not a native of America, 246. Honey, its former plenty. Present depressure of its culture. Old mode of culture described, 247. Depredations of the moth increased by patent hives. Aim of patent hives. Sulphur or starvation, 249. Feeble swarms a nuisance, 250. Notion prevailing in relation to breaking up stocks. Improved hives valueless without improved system of treatment, 251. Pretended secrets in the management of bees. Strong stocks thrive under almost any circumstances, 252. Stocks in costly hives. Circumstances under which the moth succeeds in a hive, 253. Signs of worms in a hive, 254. When entrenched difficult to remove. Method of avoiding their ravages, 255. Combs having moth eggs to be removed and smoked, 257. Uncovered comb to be removed, 258. Loss of the queen the most fruitful occasion of ravages by the moth. Experiments on this point, 259. Attempts to defend a queenless swarm against the moth useless, 260. Strong queenless colonies destroyed when feeble ones with queens are untouched. Common hives furnish no remedy for the loss of the queen. Colonies without queens will perish, if not destroyed by the moth, 261. Strong stocks rob queenless ones. Principal reasons of protection, 262. Small stocks should have small space. Inefficiency of various contrivances, 263. Useful precautions when using common hives. Destroy the larvæ of the moth early. Decoy of a woolen rag, 264. Hollow or split sticks for traps. If the queen be lost, and worms infest the colony, break it up. Provision of the improved hives against moths, 265. Moth-traps no help to careless bee-keepers. Incorrigibly careless persons should have nothing to do with bees, 266. Worms, how removed from an improved hive. Sweet solutions useful to catch the moths. Interesting remarks of H. K. Oliver, on the bee-moth, 267. Ravages of mice. Birds. Observations on the king-bird, 269. Inhumanity and injurious effects of destroying birds, 270. Other enemies of the bee. Precautions against dysentery. Bees not to be fed on liquid honey late in the season. Foul brood of the Germans, 271. Produced by "American Honey." Peculiar kind of dysentery, 272.

CHAPTER XII.

Loss of the Queen. Queen often lost. Queens of strong hives seldom perish without providing for successors. Their death commonly occurs under favorable circumstances, 273. Young queen sometimes matured before the death of the old one. Superannuated queens incapable of laying worker eggs. Case of precocious superannuation, 274. Signs that there is no queen in a hive. Signs of queenless hives, 275. Exhortation to wives, 276. Difficult in common hives, to decide on the condition of the stock. Always easy with the movable comb hive, 277. Bees sometimes refuse to accept of aid in their queenless state. Parallel in human conduct. Young bees in such hives will at once provide for a queen. An appeal to the young, 278. Hives should be examined early in Spring. Destitute stocks should be united to others having queens. Reasons therefor. General treatment in early Spring, 279. Hives should be cleansed in Spring. Durability and cheapness of hives, 280. Undue regard to mere cheapness. Various causes destructive of queens, 281. Agitation of the bees on missing their queen, 282. Treatment of swarms that have lost their queens, 283. Examination of the hive needful,