104 THE GARDENER. [March 



for three or four days ; but eventually the society in the hive becomes 

 so disagreeable to her majesty that it is unbearable, and she deter- 

 mines on leaving possessions so dissatisfied with her government or 

 person to their own devices j so the signal is given, and the swarm 

 prepares for departure. They crowd to the open honey-cells, and take 

 possession of the honey as the first means of providing fixtures and 

 furniture for the new home they are about to seek. When they issue 

 forth and have alighted, the swarm should be placed in a hive and 

 carried to the stand on which it is to remain. There they cluster 

 closely, and in that condition they generate sufficient heat to convert, 

 by a process of digestion, the honey in their honey-sacs into the 

 material of which their combs are composed, and which is termed 

 wax. This wax cannot be secreted by the bees unless they so cluster. 

 Under such circumstances is the wax formed, and it issues from small 

 openings, termed wax-pockets, in the sides of the working bees, in 

 the shape of small scales, which are very plastic, and which the bees 

 mould at their will into cells, the shape and size of which are so well 

 known, and about which so much has been written. 



In the mean time the royal cells are progressing, and the larva has 

 become a caterpillar, which spins round itself a covering or cocoon of 

 the very finest silk-like material. It then changes to a chrysalis, which 

 in due course becomes a young queen bee. In the case of the hatching 

 and nursing of working bees and drones the process is very similar, 

 though differing in minutise from the hatching of queen bees ; and 

 whether the marked difference in the result in the case of the produc- 

 tion of queen bees is due to the quantity or quality of the food, or the 

 shape of the cell, is not at present clear ; but it is quite certain that 

 the egg or larva which would have become, under ordinary condi- 

 tions, a working bee of no sex at all, becomes, under other conditions, 

 a fully-developed female bee. 



When the time has nearly arrived for the young queen to come 

 forth, the bees carefully pare away the waxy covering at the end of 

 the cell, leaving only the silken tissue to cover it. This in due time 

 the queen bee gnaws sufficiently to allow of its being pushed open by 

 herself from the inside, when she steps forth to search the comb for 

 honey. Having obtained a supply, her first impulse is to make war 

 on all other young queens or queen-cells ; but if it is intended that a 

 cast or second swarm shall issue, the queen bee is held back as before 

 described, and the other queen-cells are carefully guarded until she 

 leads forth the second swarm, which generally happens on the same or 

 the next day. Sometimes two or three young queens issue forth at 

 the same time in different parts of the hive ; and if the rage for swarm- 

 ing prevails, and they have not discovered each other, there may be 



