No. 63.] 231 



hive, I had concluded to let the swarm perish in their own way. 

 But, as I was looking into the hive through the glass, I observed a 

 moth miller depositing her eggs among the combs, without the least 

 resistance on the part of the bees. This was a new thought to me; 

 that the bees must inevitably perish by the moth, that " monster in 

 gaudy hue," was so repugnant to my feelings, that I determined at 

 once to defeat their pernicious purposes by supplying the bees with 

 a new queen, which would reinstate their industry and ambition. 

 But the season had already advanced to August 5th, two or three 

 weeks after the close of the swarming season, so that no young queens 

 could be caught, and I had not taken the precaution to preserve any ex- 

 tra queens that season. Hence, in order to carry out my system to its 

 full extent, a good hive of bees must be sacrificed. The hive select- 

 ed was taken from the stand at noon-day; I inverted the hive, took 

 out all the comb, honey and bees, (the bees went into the adjoining 

 hives;) this done, I selected brood comb of workers only, containing 

 eggs, larvEB and chrysalis, in all their stages; placed the comb care- 

 fully in a drawer, and inserted the same into the chamber of the hive, 

 so that the bees could repair their loss by making a queen in their 

 own way. They did so, and on the eighth day had a queen; and here 

 it should be remarked, that the bees, on the third day after they were 

 supplied with young broods, resumed all their natural habits, labored 

 with seeming redoubled vigilance; obtained a complete victory of the 

 moths; expelled every one of them from their tenement, and pro- 

 tected their hive as usual. On expellingthe bees from the combs, on 

 the 21st day of August, (queen eight days old,) eggs were found in 

 some of the cells, and the bees changing them to brood comb as fast 

 as eggs were discovered. 



This experiment shows conclusively that bees have the power to 

 convert the grubs of workers to queens, as in this case. The entire 

 and complete overthrow of the swarm was predicted. But a sup- 

 ply of larvae has enabled them to create for themselves a young and 

 fruitful queen, which was the means of their replenishing their stock, 

 and has continued in existence for years, a fine healthy and vigorous 

 hive. 



The peculiar instinct of the bees, as manifested by them in chang- 

 ing the nature of grubs of workers to perfect females or queens, to 

 fill vacancies occasioned by the departure of the old queen with the 

 swarm, and other casual losses or vacated cases, is the foundation of 

 the whole bee economy. 



Whether the grub or larvae of the drone is capable of being chang- 

 ed to a queen, is a matter yet to be proved by experiment, which has 

 never been done to my knowledge. It is believed that all eggs when 

 laid by the queen, are of one class or sex, for a whole litter of eggs 

 are frequently deposited in one kind of cells, and all hatch outwork- 

 ers or drones, according to the size of the cells where they are rais- 

 ed. It is found, moreover, that the queen, in some instances, depo- 

 sites eggs promiscuously, some in coarse cells and others in fine ones- 

 and the former invariably hatch out drones, and the latter always 



