^8 BEE3. 



would wag-er it all that I would cause the bees to metamor- 

 })liose all the egg's that a queen may lay into drones exclu- 

 sively ; nay, I would cause them to be metamorphosed into 

 working- bees in March, and into drones in April, and so on 

 alternately, and a few into queens at any time."* This is a 

 point to which it would be well if scientific men would give 

 renewed attention. All the known facts appear at present 

 to favour Mr. Pettigrew's statements. 



Although it may appear that as the bees are indued with 

 80 much ingenuity, and have so many methods of procuring a 

 new monarch, in place of the one lost, yet it does sometimes, 

 although very seldom happen, that the queen perishes, or is 

 lost, when there are no eggs in the hive fit for transforma- 

 tion. In that case the bees appear to lose all their former 

 ■energies, wander listlessly about the hive and its entrance, 

 collect no new stores of honey, but live upon that which has 

 been already laid up, and when that has been exhausted, 

 either perish of hunger at home, or leave the hive in despair. 

 In such a state, they will, of course, be only too glad to 

 ■welcome a stranger queen, but it is recommended instead of 

 giving- them a new monarch to give the stock to another 

 iiive, when they will at once fall into its ways, and return to 

 their wonted habits of industry and economy. 



It appears that the bees are occasionally subject to mis- 

 haps in the process of development from the eg^\ On one 

 such occasion, when the larva of a queen was concerned, the 

 incident was marked by some peculiarly interesting* pheno- 

 mena. Keys, the author of a very excellent book entitled 

 ^'The Anti'ent Bee-Master's Farewell" (1796) beheld the 

 whole, and thus recorded his observations : — " I saw the 

 ■workers very busy in demolishing a royal cell, close to the 

 window of a box. It had been sealed up some days : but 

 continuing so beyond the usual period of exclusion, I sus- 

 pected some mischance, and, therefore, was very intent to 

 observe the result. At five o'clock one morning, the workera 

 were very deeply engaged in opening the side of the cell ; in 

 about two hours they had made a chasm large enough to 

 see the nymph, and which they were endeavouring to pull 

 •<jut, but in vain. They then proceeded to a further enlarge- 

 inent, when the queen, with hasty steps and anxious looks, 

 * Gardcncfs Chronicle, vol. for ISiU, p. 5(Ji. 



