THE B£E.] 



THE BEE, AND 



[queek-bee. 



tinguished character in a hive. In fact, she 

 reigns over her people. She is — 



" First of the throng, and foremost of the whole, 

 One stands confest the sovereign of the soul." 



Her embrace is said to be fatal to the 

 drones, and her power was acknowledged long 

 before her sex was known. Greeks, Latnis, 

 and Arabs invariably designate her as the 

 king ; and so does Shakespeare. 



The queen-bee is, however, not a king-bee ; 

 and she is said, by an old author, "to differ 

 from the vulgar, both in shape and colour." 

 Her abdomen is of greater length, and she 

 is provided with a sting and two ovaria of con- 

 siderable size. The working bees compose 

 the third class, and are marked by the small- 

 ness of their size, the length of the proboscis, 

 the singular structure of their thighs and legs, 

 and by the seeming want of generative organs. 

 These are now set down as undeveloped 

 females. Mr. Scherach, of Little Bautzen? 

 and secretary to the Lausatian Society, has 

 proved this. It is on these creatures all the 

 laborious duties incident to tlie community 

 devolve. They are the working classes, who 

 construct the interior of their habitation ; 

 explore the fields in search of food and other 

 materials ; bring them to the hive, and apply 

 them to the purposes for which they are 

 adapted. They are also the constant- at- 

 tendants of the queen, whose wants they 

 supply ; besides being the soldiers of the 

 hive, which they defend against the attacks of 

 enemies ; so that their whole lives is a scene 

 of constant and busy occupation, from early 

 dawn till close of day, when the weather and 

 season are congenial to tlieir employments. 

 The lives of the females are chiefly occupied 

 with laying eggs, and conducting the colonies, 

 which, at certain periods, emigrate from the 

 parent hive; so that tlie drones seem to be 

 the only encumbrances upon the state. They 

 bave, however, their uses, as everything in 

 nature has. They perform the important duty 

 of impregnation ; but they perish the moment 

 they hav«! fullilled their purpose. 



NUMBERS IN A HIVE. 



she is entitled by the dignity of her station. 

 The nuniher of labourers, however, vary con- 

 siderably in different hives. In a strong 

 hive there are about 15,000 ; and of drones 

 about one to ten of these. This proportion, 

 though seldom exact, is rarely very much 

 exceeded or fallen short of. According to 

 Dr. Bevan, a single family, where swarming 

 is prevented, will sometimes amount to 50,000 

 or G0,000. A writer observes, upon the 

 strength of a hive, that the drones, even in 

 the spring, seldom compose more than one- 

 thirtieth or one-fortieth of the whole ; and at 

 other seasons there are none to be found in 

 the hive. " In order to form an estimate of 

 the number of bees which can occupy a certain 

 space, Mr. Hunter counted what number of 

 drowned bees could be contained in an ale- 

 house pint, and found it to be 2,1G0; so that 

 if a swarm were to fill two quarts, their 

 numbers would be nearly 9,000. Keaumur, 

 with the same view of -ascertaining their 

 numbers, employed the more accurate method 

 of weighing them. He found that a collec- 

 tion of them weighing one ounce, consisted of 

 330 bees ; and, therefore, that sixteen ounces, 

 or one pound, would consist of 5,376 bees." 



ATTACHMENT AND HOMAGE TO THE 

 QUEEN-BEE. 



The sole province and occupation of the 

 queen of a hive is to lay eggs, which, in the 

 height of the season, she does at the rate of 

 200 a day. If the weather be particularly warm 

 and favourable, she will lay even more than 

 that ; and continue to do so, tliough at a 

 gradually diminishing rate, till the approach 

 of cold weather in October. " So early as 

 February she resumes her labours in the same 

 department, and supplies the great blank 

 made in the population by the numerous 

 casualties that take place between the end of 

 summer and the commencement of spring. 

 Her great laying of the eggs of workers begins 

 generally about the fifth day of her age ; and 

 she continues to deposit eggs of the same kind 

 for the succeeding eleven months ; after which 

 she commences laying those of males." In 



the operation of laying the queen puts her 



In a hive there is usually only one perfect ' head into a cell, and remains in that position 



queen existing at a time, and she receives all not more than a couple of seconds ; after which 



the honour, deference, and affection to which 



996 



she withdraws her head, curving her body 



