THE HONEY-BEE. *93 



seldom the prosperity of the apiary is affected by the 

 death of a queen ; yet, supposing the duration of her 

 life to extend to four years, and we iave no certainty 

 of its being of longer continuance, in every collection 

 of four stock hives, there must be, on an average, one 

 death each year. And yet how seldom are we aware 

 of this event, or suffer any diminution of our stocks 

 in consequence ! We can account for this only by 

 concluding that the death of the queen from age, 

 takes place much less frequently in winter than in 

 summer, at which season eggs may have been already 

 laid in royal cells ; or, at all events, there being then 

 common eggs and brood of all ages in the hive, the 

 bees have it in their power to rear a successor from 

 the larva of a worker. And the males being at the 

 same time in great numbers, impregnation of the 

 young queen soon takes place, eggs are laid forty-six 

 hours afterwards, and the business of the community 

 goes on without further interruption. 



Bees are confessedly a very irritable race, and in 

 our frequent inspection of the hives at this season, as 

 well as in our operations with them throughout the 

 year, we are sometimes made to feel their fury, and 

 to smart under the venom of their stings. Almost 

 all bee-masters are of opinion that the anger of the 

 bees is greatly excited and aggravated by the odour 

 of their own poison.* Feburier thinks that this 

 venom is more or less active according to the temper- 



* The venom of bees is extremely active ; Reaumur con- 

 jectures that the weight of a grain would kill a pigeon in a few 

 seconds. 



