CH. III.] 



THE HIVE BEE. 



67 





Fig. I. Closed royal cell. 



2. Another varied in shape. 



3. Two cells just commenced ; their apertures are here drawn 

 looking upwards, to show their cavity. This position is the 

 reverse of the natural one. 



One of the most astonishing- facts connected with 

 the economy of bees, is the manner in which, when 

 deprived of their queen, they proceed to repair their 

 loss: for this purpose they construct several of 

 these royal cells, and taking a common worker- 

 worm out of the ordinary cells, they put it into a 

 royal one, feed the insect with royal food, which is 

 more pungent than that destined for worker grubs, 

 and in a few days, instead of a worker, they have a 

 queen. This extraordinary discovery, made by 

 Schirach, has been confirmed by Huber, and is now 

 admitted by all naturalists. In many parts of Ger- 

 many, and more especially in Lusatia and Saxony, 

 the peasants, availing themselves of this discovery, 

 are enabled to multiply their swarms of bees at 

 pleasure ; they shut up a few hundred working bees 



