have watched their
return, which varied from three minutes to half an hour, and seen them
hover around their own hive, apparently in doubt whether they belonged
in that, or the next; in a few instances they have actually settled on
the neighboring hive, and would have there perished, but for my
assistance in putting them right.

THE TIME WHEN IT OCCURS.

Thus we see that queens are lost on these occasions from some cause,
and part of them by entering the wrong hive, perhaps most of them; if
so, it is another good reason for not packing stocks too close. The
hives are very often nearly alike in color and appearance. The queen
coming out for the first time in her life, is no doubt confused by this
similarity.

The number of such losses in a season has varied: one year the average
was one in nine, another it was one in thirteen, and another one in
twenty. The time from the first swarm also varies from twelve to twenty
days. The inexperienced reader should not forget that it is the old
stocks which have cast swarms, where these accidents happen; the old
queen having left with the first swarm. Also all after swarms are
liable to the same loss. I would suggest that these have abundant room
given between the hives; if it is necessary to pack close, let it be
the first swarms, where the old queen has no occasion to leave. Having
never seen this matter fully discussed, I wish to be somewhat
particular, and flatter myself that I shall be able to direct the
careful apiarian how to save a few stocks and swarms annually, that is,
if he keeps many. A few years ago, I wrote an article for the Albany
Cultivator. A subscriber of that paper told me a year afterwards that
he saved two stocks the next summer by the information; they were worth
at least five dollars each, enough to pay for his paper ten years or
more.

When a stock casts but one swarm, the queen having no competitors to
interfere with her movements, will leave in about fourteen days, if the
weather is fair; but should an after swarm leave, the oldest of the
young queens will probably go with that, of course: then, it must be
later before the next is ready: it may be twenty days, or even more;
those with after swarms will vary from one to six. It _always must_
occur when no eggs or larvae exist, and no means left to repair this
loss; a loss it is, and a serious one; the bees are in as much trouble
as their owner, and a great deal more, they seeming to understand the