Age Of Bees Indicated
Categories:
LOSS OF QUEENS.
Bee Keeping:
Mysteries Of Bee-keeping Explained
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 largest and best family possibly could be made to exist six months,
without a queen for their renewal, except, perhaps, through the winter.
When standing close on one bench, they are gone sooner than if on
separate stands, as they often join a neighboring hive when they can
walk to it.