a. [-LESS.] Having no queen.
1858. Sat. Rev., VI. 29/1. They may learn what happens to the queenless swarm.
1880. Lubbock, in Jrnl. Linn. Soc., XV. 176. I procured a queen … and put her with some honey in a queenless nest.
1882. Marie Howland, in Harper’s Mag., LXV. 252/1. Gladis hung the cage for one day in her queenless hive.
Hence Queenlessness.
1884. Bee-keeping (Brit. Bee-keepers’ Assoc.), 26. With me queenlessness presents the worst of all difficulties.
