NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 77 



rectifying an evil, even if he discovers it. " Guide combs," as 

 artificially prepared plates of wax are called, infallibly ensure 

 straight comb. They may be fastened to the bars with sprigs, or 

 by waxing the under side of the bar while hot, and pressing 

 them together until united. 



When we consider the enormous amount of honey required to 

 produce one pound of wax, say fifteen to twenty pounds, one 

 ounce of comb holding over one pound of honey, it shows the 

 necessity of the bee-master saving such a valuable commodity. Wax 

 is secreted on the underside of the Bee, and oozes out in scales, 

 but both the weather and the warmth of the hive have a great 

 influence in the building of combs. 



The queen, or mother Bee, is the only perfect female, and 

 her sole business or occupation seems to be to lay eggs, and 

 this in the height of summer is often carried on to such an 

 extent, that she produces from 2500 to 3000 eggs per day. Dur- 

 ing all this time her faithful attendants follow and feed her. She 

 can also, when laying, deposit an egg alternately in a worker cell, 

 or in a drone cell, and this probably has given rise to the theory 

 which some apiarians have advanced, that the queen's body in 

 passing into the worker's cell is slightly compressed, and causes 

 the egg of a worker in passing from the ovary to touch the sper- 

 matheca sac, and thus become a worker or undeveloped female. 

 A queen, when hatched, is generally of a whitish colour, and 

 somewhat weakly looking. Her first action is to stretch herself, 

 and get rid of any encumbrance about her wings or body. 

 This done, she immediately begins to eat honey, which she 

 devours greedily. In a hive that is preparing to swarm, the 

 queens are not allowed to leave their cells for perhaps twenty- 

 four hours, and they have been known to be detained as long as 

 eight days ; the Bees all this time feeding them through an 

 opening under the seal of the cell, so that although kept prisoners 

 they are treated as royal blood. Huber discovered the bitter 

 animosity of the queens towards each other. He observed the 

 first hatched queen emerge from her cell, traverse the comb until 

 she found a royal cell, then tear it open in apparent fury, and 

 sting the helpless pupa to death. This she repeats until she has 

 destroyed every possible rival. If, however, two queens emerge 

 simultaneously, the worker Bees clear a space and stand back to 

 watch the inevitable conflict which must end fatally to one or 



