3tiO 



BEE. 



care of the royal cells, and prevent the young queens 

 successively hatched from leaving them, except at an 

 interval of several days from each departure. Thii 

 results, in a considerable degree, from the difteren 

 period at which the royal eggs are deposited. Thu 

 several queens are successively produced, and severa 

 swarms thrown off. As soon as a young queen is 

 produced she proceeds instantly to attack the other 

 royal cells ; but here there is a remarkable difference 

 in the conduct of the workers, for although they 

 permitted their ancient queen to pursue her own in- 

 stinct, they by no means extend me same courtesy to 

 iier successor ; but the moment she ,attempts to ap- 

 proach a royal cell, the guards surrounding it imme- 

 diately attack, bite, and drive her off. Irritated al 

 this behaviour the young queen stands upright, and 

 utters a shrill and clear sound ; and no sooner is it 

 heard than the bees appear to be paralysed ; they 

 remain motionless, and hang down their heads. She 

 then attacks the cells, but in doing so ceases to pipe, 

 when the bees, recovering from their stupor, drive her 

 away. This is continued until the queen is irritated 

 to such a degree that she follows the steps of her 

 predecessor, and in a state of delirium, which is 

 communicated to a portion of the workers, she quits 

 the hive with a second swarm. 



In this manner several swarms take place in the 

 course of the summer, between the months of April 

 and August a necessary consequence of the great 

 increase in the population of the hive, owing to the 

 fecundity of the queen in the spring months far ex- 

 ceeding the loss occasioned to the hive by the cold 

 of winter, which is estimated to destroy six or seven 

 eighths of the inhabitants. 



A good stock of bees ordinarily produces three 

 swarms in favourable seasons, and even a swarm of 

 the current year will occasionally throw oft' another 

 swarm. Five swarms have, indeed, been recorded to 

 have been thrown off ; and Bosc, the celebrated ento- 

 mologist, has stated that, whilst in Carolina, he had 

 eleven swarms in the course of a year from one stock, 

 each of which, during the same season, threw oft' the 

 same number of secondary ones. Each swarm con- 

 tains not only young bees recently hatched, but also 

 a portion of the old inhabitants. There are generally 

 from seven to nine days intervening between the first 

 and second swarm ; between the second and third the 

 space is shorter ; and where there is a fourth, it may 

 depart the day after that which precedes it. Hence 

 it is essential that this space of time should intervene 

 between the flight of the old queen and the appear- 

 ance in the perfect state of the new one, and this is 

 produced in the following singular manner : 



After the royal cells are covered in, in order that 

 the inclosed grub may undergo its change to the 

 chrysalis state, the workers immediately remove here 

 and there a portion of the wax from the surface, so 

 as to render it unequal ; and immediately before the 

 last metamorphosis takes place the walls are so thin 

 that all the motions of the inclosed pupa are distinctly 

 visible. On the seventh day the part covering the 

 head and trunk of the pupa is almost entirely un- 

 waxed, whereby the inclosed insect, on arriving at its 

 winged state, would be enabled to make its exit with 

 perfect facility, were it not for the proceedings of the 

 attendant workers, who are guided therein entirely 

 by the wants of the society. As soon, therefore, as 

 the workers perceive that the young queen has cut 

 circularly through her cocoon, they immediately solder 



the cleft up with some particles of wux, and so 

 her a prisoner against her will. Upon this, as if tc 

 complain of such treatment, she emils a distinct hum- 

 ming sound, which excites no dread nor pity in the 

 breasts of her subjects, who detain her two days 

 longer than nature has assigned for her confinement. 

 During this* period she sometimes thrusts her tongue 

 through the cleft she has made, drawing it in and out 

 until she is noticed by the workers, who thereupon 

 feed her with honey, till, her hunger being satisfied, 

 she draws her tongue back. At the proper period 

 she is released, and proceeds as her predecessor had 

 done. 



Shortly after the swarming has taken place, the 

 impregnation of the queen takes place. Upon this 

 subject such differences of opinion have prevailed 

 amongst naturalists, and such absurd theories have been 

 broached, that, now that the subject has been cleared 

 of all its mystery, the reader cannot but smile at the 

 errors which a minute investigation and an unbiassed 

 mind could not fail to have detected ; and thus it has 

 generally been with every question of natural history 

 which required any thing beyond the most common- 

 place attention. Mankind has been too prone to in- 

 dulge in the marvellous ; and hence, without stopping to 

 inquire into the precise nature of things, well observed 

 effects have been attributed to the most ridiculous 

 causes. Thus it has been with the impregnation of 

 the queen bee ; but we will not. waste; our space, nor 

 the time of our readers, by citing the opinions which 

 have been entertained upon the subject. Similar to 

 the case of the ants, amongst which it is well known 

 that fecundation takes place in the- air at the period 

 of swarming, the female bee being preceded by the 

 drones, and having previously reconnoitred the 

 exterior of the hive, rises aloft in the air, wheeling 

 upwards in large circles, until she is out of sight. 

 She returns from her excursion in about half, an hour 

 with the most evident marks of impregnation, although 

 occasionally these excursions are of shorter duration, 

 and are repeated, the female, in such case, exhibiting 

 no such marks. Now it is that a new stimulus to 

 exertion is given to the workers ; every thing is then 

 done with the greatest care. They hasten to finish 

 the cells which they have commenced, laying new 

 foundations, and appear to be fully conscious of the 

 importance of their activity. The progress of their 

 labours is the signal by which the female is directed 

 in laying her eggs. 



According to M. Huber, a single coupling is suffi- 

 cient to vivify all the eggs which the female shall 

 deposit in the course of a couple of years, and pro- 

 bably for all those which she shall lay during her 

 entire life. According to Huber, the queen ordi- 

 narily lays about 12,000 eggs in the months of April 

 and May, which is termed the great laying, us it is 

 irom these that the swarms are produced, one of 

 which, of a moderate size, is calculated to consist of 

 Yom 12,000 ,to 20,000 ; hence, as there are several 

 swarms in the course of the summer, it is probable 

 hat the calculation of Reaumur, which is double that 

 of Huber, viz. 200 per day, is more correct. Another 

 great laying takes place at the beginning of autumn. 



But it is not the queen alone which deposits eggs, 

 since it has been well ascertained that the worker 

 >ees occasionally lay them ; but it is remarkable that 

 hese fertile workers never deposit anything but male 

 :ggs. It has been supposed, however, that they must 

 lave been small queens (noticed above) mixed with 



