88 ARTIFICIAL QUEENS. 



and the workers,, piercing a hole in the cover of the 

 cell, insert their probosces, and supply her with food 

 during her captivity. 



On the conversion of the larva of a Worker into a 

 Queen. Bees, when deprived of their Queen, are 

 endowed hy nature with the power of remedying this 

 calamity, by converting a worker larva into a royal 

 one ; and, hy means of a cell of a larger size, and of a 

 peculiar kind of nourishment, of producing a female 

 that shall be, to all intents and purposes, a Queen or 

 mother-bee, capable of perpetuating her kind. The 

 discovery of this singular fact is generally attributed 

 to Schirach, and, probably, with justice ; for, although 

 the practice of making artificial swarms, which can 

 only be effected by causing the production of artificial 

 Queens, is said to have prevailed amongst the modern 

 Greeks and Italians from a very early period, it does 

 not follow, nor does it appear from any authentic 

 documents, that they were aware of the reason why. 

 The manner in which Schirach made the discovery is 

 interesting : Having used a great quantity of smoke 

 in some of his operations, the bees were so annoyed 

 by it that numbers of them left the hive, and, amongst 

 them, the Queen. Knowing the consequences of her 

 loss, he sought for her diligently, but in vain. Next 

 morning he observed a cluster of bees about the size 

 of an apple on the prop of the hive whose Queen had 

 fled ; here he discovered a Queen, and, having carried 

 her to the entrance of the hive which had lost its own, 

 she was immediately surrounded by the bees, and 

 treated in such a manner as plainly announced that 



