consequences, and he, if he knows nothing of the matter, has no
trouble. Should he now, for the first time, learn the nature of it, he
will at the same time understand the remedy.

INDICATIONS OF THE LOSS.

The next morning after a loss of this kind has occurred, and
occasionally at evening, the bees may be seen running about in the
greatest consternation, outside, to and fro on the sides. Some will fly
off a short distance and return; one will run to another, and then to
another, still in hopes, no doubt, of finding their lost sovereign! A
neighboring hive close by, on the same bench, will probably receive a
portion, which will seldom resist an accession under such
circumstances. All this will be going on while other hives are quiet.
Towards the middle of the day, this confusion will be less marked; but
the next morning it will be exhibited again, though not so plainly, and
cease after the third, when they become apparently reconciled to their
fate.

They will continue their labors as usual, bringing in pollen and honey.
Here I am obliged to differ with writers who tell us that all labor
will now cease. I hope the reader will not be deceived by supposing
that because the bees are bringing in pollen, that they _must_ have a
queen; I can assure you it is not always the case.

THE RESULT.

The number of bees will gradually decrease, and be all gone by the
early part of winter, leaving a good supply of honey, and an extra
quantity of bee-bread, as before mentioned, because there has been no
young brood to consume it. This is the case when a large family was
left at the time of the loss. When but few bees are left, it is very
different; the combs are unprotected by a covering of bees; the moth
deposits her eggs on them, and the worms soon finish up the whole. Yet
the bees from the other stocks will generally first remove the honey.

AGE OF BEES INDICATED.

Hundreds of bee-keepers lose some of their stocks in this way, and can
assign no reasonable cause. "Why," say they, "there wasn't twenty bees
in the hive; it was all full of honey," or worms, as the case may be.
"Only a short time before, it was full of bees; I got three good swarms
from it, and it always had been first rate, but all at once the bees
were gone. I don't understand it!" Such bee-keepers cannot understand
how rapidly a family of bees diminish, when there is no queen to
replenish with young this mortality of the old ones. I doubt whether
the l