THE AMEKIOAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Hi 



show any great signs of feeling the indignity if | tliat had shown deci'led musical propensities by 

 I piclted her out and puc her on my hand— the l taking up their residence in a tom-tom.* This 

 workers seemed most anxious, and usually one | was a greil gift, and I went by moonlight, and 

 or two would accompany her upon my hand. | brought it home with great pleasure. I so nia- 

 On the seventh day. all my amusement seemed nipulated the earthen jar over which the skin was 

 to be at an end ; a servant came to tell me that , drawn to make a tom-tom of it, that I put win- 

 the bees were on the wing. True enough, there j dows in it, and so got free liberty to look at my 

 they were, but what was the cause ? And the | friends by night and day. Thea I made a door, 

 queen without wings; where was she? The I and so in time got free admission to make exper- 

 cause was at once evident ; the ants had dis- | iments. After watching for hours during several 

 turbed the new colony, and not being able to j days, I managed to see the queen laying her eggs, 

 drive back the enemy, they had vacated their j nearly close to th* door. This was just the 

 works. The great question was where was the | 'ticket. I secured her, and put her in a wineglass 

 queen ? After hunting for her for some time, I j with a piece of muslin over it. And then I waited 

 found her with only two or three attendants, and : to see the result. Again and again I watched for 

 one or two ants were i 

 and put her in a safe 



,wo or mree aiieniianis, anu ; lo see ine resuii. i^gain ana again i waicnea lor 

 upon her. I picked her up I three hours, and no panic, nor yet confusion ; 

 fe place where the workers then I thought there was a slight change in the 



could get to her, and having secured her person, 

 I set to work to drive off the ants. They had 

 attacked the young grubs and had killed some of 

 them, to my great distress. At lent!;th 1 got them 

 all clear of* the comb, and having put the feet of 

 the table into water, I thought all would be safe 

 for the future, and put the colony back again 

 with their work. Things did not, however, at 

 all please them. I fancy an odour of the horrid 

 little ants was left upon the comb, for every now 

 and again, an offended bee would buzz in the 

 greatest anger, twizzling itself round and round 

 for a second, and then rush off to another place. 

 A great reduction in numbers had taken place, 

 and at noon every day the few that remained 

 took wing — I kept them in my room, where I 

 could constantly watch them — but I usually in- 

 terfered in time to prevent the vacation of the 

 hive. At last, not ctring much if 1 did lose 

 them, I thought I would let them go to the end, 

 and see the result of the panic whatever it might 

 be. The queen was evidently ill, and ceased to 

 rush about as she usually does when there is ex- 



sound from the workers ; then there followed 

 fiying out and immediate return by some ; their 

 work ceased, and in place of its merry hum there 

 was a sort of hushing sound ; then a rush here 

 and there in disorder, and finally a general rush 

 to the aperture of the hive, and most of the bees 

 took wing. I knew I was master of the position, 

 so I waited p:itiently tUl the panic subsided, and 

 when all was quiet in the evening, I opened the 

 door to return her majesty to her throne and peo- 

 ple ; but as I was putting her in, I observed a 

 lump of bees about as large as a hen's egg on the 

 comb facing me. I, therefore, put the queen 

 back to the wineglass again, while I examined 

 this unusual appearance ; and I was well repaid 

 for my trouble, for the little creatures seeing their 

 sad misfortune, had begun to make a large cell 

 for a new queen. I at once decided to keep her 

 majesty a prisoner, to see whereunto this thing 

 would grow. By the next morning the cell was 

 complete, and all attention was given to the grub 

 out of one of the ordinary cells that was in it. 

 The new cell was placed perpendicular on the 



citement in the hive uttering the long-continued ■ face of the comb, and I have since observed that 



pe-e-e-e. The workers all flew to and fro in and 

 out of the hive, and to my astonishment one of 

 the workers took up the queen, carried her out, 

 and fell with her upon the grass. This was the 

 end of the queen and of my colony of bees, for 

 the queen died that day and I took no further 

 notic>; of the workers. 



I was not long left without other hives, for the 

 natives of the city had taken an interest in my 

 amusement ; the extempore poets made and sang 

 songs about me and my bees, and I had friends i 

 on all sides who daily brought me news of new 

 hives. My amusements now formed a reason 

 for morning anil evening exercise, either on foot, 

 or on horseback, or by1i)uggy, and the boys of 

 the city took great interest in the little folk that 

 afforded me amusement. I now took a number 

 of hives in hand ; one I kept in the hollow tree 

 where I found it. I brought it home for a dis- 

 tance of four miles on a cart at night. I filled 

 up the aperture by which they passed in and out, 

 cut off the timber which was not wanted, and so 

 rendered the tree manageable. This hive did 

 very well in its new locality, but I could only 

 look at them going in and out, and amufe myself 

 by observing their wonderful industry in work- 

 ing. A farmer who had heard of the eccentric 

 sahib who tamed bees and made them understand 

 him, came and offered me a good strong hive. 



queen's cells are always in a perpendicular posi- 

 tion. I could not afford to let matters go too far, 

 because I should have lost my queen by so do- 

 ing, and the new queen would have been unfruit- 

 ful for a long time, if not altogether barren, in- 

 asmuch as she must have gone abroad among her 

 neighbours for a royal consort. There were at 

 that period no drones in the hive. Within three 

 hours after the queen was returned the intended 

 new qneen was neglected, and the next day the 

 disfigurement on the face of the comb had dis- 

 appeared. As the spring came on, I saw the 

 combs day by day enlarge, and immense num- 

 bers of drones — males — came out, and in due 

 course queen's cells were formed upon the lower 

 edges of the combs, to the number of twenty ; 

 and by the middle of February I had seen eight 

 swarms fiy off from this one hive. Some of the 

 swarms were very small, and in the end the hive 

 was so weak that moths got in and laid their eggs 

 in the comb, so that the few that remained were 

 eaten out of house and home by the grubs of the 

 moths, which burrowed the comb in every di- 

 rection, filling them with cobwebs wherever they 

 went. 



Although I was much interested in my amuse- 

 ment, yet I must confess to great disappointment 



* Native drum. 



