e lower end reach into the
opening. This comb will keep it in the right position, and may rest on
the floor-board. It can now be put in the hive, cutting out a piece of
comb to make room for it if necessary.

Soon after such cell is introduced, the bees are quiet. In a few days
it hatches, and they have a queen as perfect as if it had been one of
their own rearing. This queen of course will be necessitated to leave
the hive, and will be just as liable to be lost, but no more so than
others, and must be watched the same. It is unnecessary to look for a
cell in a stock that has cast its first swarm more than a week before,
as they are generally destroyed by that time, (sometimes short of it,)
unless they intend to send out an after swarm.

MARK THE DATE OF SWARMS ON THE HIVE.

Should you have so many stocks that you cannot remember the date of
each swarm without difficulty, it is a good plan to mark the date on
one side or corner of the hive, as it issues. You can then tell at once
where to look for a cell when wanted.

It will sometimes happen that a queen may be lost at the extreme end of
the swarming season, when no other stock contains such cells. I then
look around for the poorest stock or swarm that I have on hand, one
that I can afford to sacrifice, if it possesses a queen, to save the
one that has sustained this loss; this is not often the case, but is
sometimes. I have a few times put just bees enough with the queen to
keep her in a box, and kept them for this purpose, as was mentioned in
the last chapter. When introduced, the bees are generally killed, but
the queen is preserved.

OBTAINING A QUEEN FROM WORKER BROOD.

There is yet another method to be adopted, and that is, to obtain a
piece of brood-comb containing workers' eggs, or larvae very young. You
will generally find it without much trouble, in a young swarm that is
making combs; the lower ends usually contain eggs; take a piece from
one of the middle sheets, two or three inches long, (you will probably
use smoke by this time without telling). Invert the hive that is to
receive it, put the piece edgewise between the combs, if you can spread
them apart enough for the purpose; they will hold it there, and then
there will be ample room to make the cells. They will nearly always
rear several queens. I have counted nine several times, which were all
they had room for. But yet I have very little confidence in such
queens, they are almost certain to