When the first swarm issues forth, the original mother-queen goes with it, and during the next day the combs commenced by the bees in the new hive would be sufficiently advanced to enable her to gratify her natural propensity, and she would deposit her eggs as the work advances; so that, although for the first three weeks after swarming the numbers in the hive were to decrease, yet after that period the young bees would be hatched, and under favourable conditions the increase would be so very rapid that unless room was given a swarm would probably issue; or if a super was placed in the hive, a surplus deposit of honey might reasonably be expected. This is what generally happens with the so-called improved cottage-hive. It is so small that a good swarm will fill it with comb and brood in a fortnight, and the bees must work in the glasses above. The owner is of course delighted at the prospect of getting honey from a swarm the first year, and he is quite satisfied that the cottage-hive is the right sort of thing.

But after the first season there is seldom any further success, as the hive is too small to hold sufficient bees and their provender to stand the winter well; and unless they are carefully and continuously fed, they are sure to be late and weak when they should be strong and vigorous. The first swarm should be placed in a hive large enough to contain all that can effect in one season, which would be about the size of hive required to render the evil of clustering outside the hive unnecessary in the early spring.

It might now be reasonably supposed that the old stock and the young colony are each furnished with a young queen, who for a few days is occupied in cultivating the acquaintance of her subjects, and apparently receiving assurances of their loyalty. It is then her duty to fly abroad with her personal attendants, to see the world from which are drawn those nectarious supplies known as honey.

This flight is prompted by natural instincts, for it is during this flight the conditions are fulfilled which fits the queen bee to deposit the eggs from which a new progeny is formed. This flight, by association of ideas, is called the queen's wedding-trip; and if she passes safely through the dangers of her journey, she returns to her hive and is received with great rejoicing by her subjects, who welcome her as a queen in every way qualified to preside over and to promote the happiness of a loyal and industrious people.

The queen, having returned home in safety, is treated with the gravest reverence by her subjects, a group of about a dozen of whom attend constantly upon her, their heads all turned towards her as if paying her the greatest homage; and they continually-touch her with their antennae, as if caressing her, as she moves over the comb depositing eggs, which, unless the hive is by some means rendered queenless, must become either working bees or drones. The cells in which the eggs are deposited are of two sizes, the smaller ones called worker-cells, and the larger drone-cells; and eggs deposited in these cells become working bees or drones, as the case may be. Why is this 1 The eggs of a fertile laying queen, in passing from the ovarium to the vulva, pass a little sac or bag called the spermatheca, containing a fluid acquired from a drone bee during the queen's flight abroad, the most infinitesimal portion of which, coming into contact with the egg in its passage, changes the nature of it so marvellously, that that which, under all other conditions of life, must have become a drone or male bee, becomes a working bee destitute of sex.

And thus it occurs, when depositing eggs in the cells respectively, that in a small or worker cell the body of the queen, by the effort made, is slightly pressed by the sides of the cell in which she deposits her egg, and sufficient of the spermatheca is forced into contact with the egg to cause the great change just described. If, on the other hand, the egg is deposited in a large or drone cell, there will be no pressure on the queen's body from the sides of the cell and the egg will thus escape the influence of the fluid in the spermatheca, and this deposit issues in a drone or male bee. If, however, by any chance, an egg from a fertile queen is deposited in a worker-cell, without having been brought into contact with the fluid in the spermatheca, the working bees, knowing a drone will result, will elongate that particular cell to give more room to its inhabitant; and although it will become a drone, it will only be a very little larger than a worker-bee.

There are many ways by which the return of a young queen to her hive may be prevented. She may be tempted by the glorious prospect before her to extend her flight beyond the limits of prudence, and may fall from exhaustion; a bird may devour her; she may return to a wrong hive and perish there; a cold wind may chill her, or a shower of rain beat her to the earth; or she may perish by other means; and it is because this so often happens that old stocks from which good swarms have issued in spring often die away in the ensuing summer; and this is another reason why second swarms are often not worth keeping.

In the case of bees in the straw skep, the loss of a queen is not so easily determined by actual observation, as the combs are not movable; and only when it is too late to provide a remedy does the calamity become apparent. The presence or absence of a queen in a hive may always be tested by the insertion of a queen-cell from another hive, if one can be obtained; in which case, if the queen be present, the inserted cell will be torn open at the side as before described, and the contents withdrawn ; but if the queen be lost, the inserted queen-cell will remain intact until the young queen is hatched, and she, of course, will be liable to the same series of accidents as her predecessor.

The foregoing are some of the causes of failure and consequent disappointment under the prevailing system of bee-keeping, which the bee-master should recognise and remedy by adopting the best means in his power. In the case of hives with movable combs, the absence of a queen may be discovered immediately, as there will be no eggs or larvae in the hive, and there will almost certainly be queen-cells raised or being raised. Of course it is not in the power of man to control the seasons, but he may control the bees, and regulate their propensity to increase their numbers, so as to insure healthy stocks and a sufficiency of working bees to collect the honey it is desired should be obtained - knowing, as he should know, the time or times when honey is abundant. The loss of young queens and the death of old ones cannot be controlled; but, as I have shown, it may be remedied, either by uniting the stocks, or inserting another queen or queen-cell, the manner of doing which is more easily described than effected in the case of straw skeps, especially as regards the introduction of queens.