68 NATURAL HISTORY. [CH. IV. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE HIVE BEE. 



Fertility of Queen Bee— Swarming— Ventilation of the Hive— Irasci- 

 bility— Duels— Robberies— Defences of Bees. 



As spring advances, the losses which the hive has 

 sustained in the autumn and winter are repaired. The 

 fertility of the queen-mother is prodigious. Schi- 

 rach says, that in the course of one season, a single 

 female will lay from 70,000 to 100,000 eggs. Hu- 

 ber and Reaumur's estimate is not so high ; but the 

 lowest is very considerable : hence the habitation is 

 soon overpeopled, and it becomes necessary, there- 

 fore, that thousands should quit their homes, and 

 lay the foundation of another kingdom. This ex- 

 patriation is not confined to the young brood, who 

 have not as yet laboured, but the old ; they who with 

 infinite travail had already constructed one city, 

 voluntarily leave all they have done, to begin life 

 again. 



About the time when the queen lays royal eggs, the 

 workers make preparation for the male insects ; con- 

 sequently, males and females appear about the same 

 period, when Providence has covered the surface of 

 the earth with the flowers from which the young bee 

 may collect its food. The same kind hand has ap- 

 pointed the autumn, when the fruit is ripe, for the 

 birth-time of the young wasp. 



Sometimes there are as many as twenty royal cells, 

 each of which contains a queen. The natural ha- 

 tred subsisting between female bees has been men- 

 tioned, but this passion, apparently so vile and inju- 

 rious, is the means by which the species is saved, and 



