60 THE SENSES OF BEES. 



friend, he was treated as a trespasser ; nor was hft 

 ever able after this period to perform any operation 

 with them, or to approach within their precincts, 

 without exciting their anger. Here then it is pretty 

 evident that some change had taken place in the 

 Counsellor's secretions in consequence of the fever, 

 which though not noticeable by his friends, was 

 offensive to the olfactory nerves of the Bees." * 



Functions of the inmates of a hive. A hive con- 

 sists of the Queen, or mother-bee, the Workers vary- 

 ing in numbers, from 10,000, to 20,000 or 30,000, 

 and the Males or Drones, from 700 to double that 

 number. 



Functions of the Queen. (see PL I. Fig. 2.) 

 The QUEEN is the parent of the hive ; and her sole 

 province and occupation consist in laying the eggs,, 

 from which originate those prodigious multitudes 

 that people a hive, and emigrate from it in the 

 course of one summer. In the height of the season, 

 her fertility is truly astonishing, as she lays not fewer 

 than 200 eggs per day, and even more when the 

 season is particularly warm and genial, and flowers 

 are abundant ; and this laying continues, though at a 

 gradually diminishing rate, till the approach of cold 

 weather in October. So early as February, she re- 

 sumes her labours in the same department, and sup- 

 plies the great blank made in the population by 

 the numerous casualties that take place between the 

 end of summer and commencement of spring. Her 

 great laying of the eggs of workers begins generally 

 * Bevan's Honey- Bee, p. 304. 



