ON my plan of bee management, if a stock does not change its queen for three years in succession, the fourth season the old queen should be taken away, if she shows the least sign of failing, and a young, laying queen substituted in her place It often happens, if the queen in a stock dies or becomes seriously injured, that the bees will, of their own accord, rear another to take her place. But if her failure has been gradual, the bees may not have the means to do so, when she at last fails entirely, for the reason that she may cease laying, for several days or weeks previous to her death, in which case it would be impossible for the bees, without assistance, to rear another queen to take her place. They must have an egg not over five days old, from which to rear a queen. The great necessity of close observation, in order to keep each stock always supplied with a healthy, prolific queen, cannot be impressed too strongly on the mind of every bee keeper. Be sure not to neglect this very important point in successful and profitable bee keeping. But very few seem to know the average duration of life of the honey bee. The average term of life of the worker is only a few months--not more than from two to four--a great many do not live out half that time. So it will be seen that it is only by keeping healthy and prolific queens in each stock, that we can have populous stocks, such as will pay a good profit. In my experiments I have in several instances taken from a vigorous and very populous stock their queen, and at the same time deprived them of the means of rearing another. This was done in the honey season. In such cases the bees kept on with their labor, though with visible reluctance and an appearance of discouragement, the number of bees decreasing very rapidly, and in from two to three months nearly all had disappeared, not more than two or three hundred remaining, where there had been from thirty thousand to fifty thousand all in a prosperous condition.