156 



ON BEES AND HONEY. 



that all the boes around her turned their heads towards her, 

 and, if she stopped, they formed a sort of circle about her, 

 while some fondled and licked her with their probosces, and 

 some supplied her with food. She is very gentle in her dis- 

 position, never littering an angry icord^ and can, only after 

 the greatest provocation, and scarcely then, be induced to at- 

 tempt to sting. Beautiful pattern for all her sex ! May they 

 imitate her " in all her imitable perfections!" 



The life of the reigning cr queen-mother, by a beautiful a- 

 daptation of Divine Providence, to the wants of the communi- 

 ty over which she presides, herself supplying her ov/n faithful 

 subjects, is prolonged to the period of four or five years. If 

 she dies at such time of the year, when there is no young 

 brood-comb in the hive, say in November, December, January, 

 and possibly, February, the stock must inevitably die out and 

 perish. But if she dies, or is lost, when there is young brood- 

 comb in the hive, then the worker-bees, wisely provided with 

 the appropriate instinct, take a worm, of three or four days old, 

 which, under the ordinary operation, would have been a work- 

 er^bee, and, by means wholly unexplained, convert it into a 

 queen or mother-bee. Of the fact, there is not a doubt. As 

 the man said in the fable of the Chameleon, so the writer says 

 having witnessed the operation, "I've seen, and sure I ought 

 to know." 



The subject is one of great detail, as well as of great curi- 

 osity, and would occupy too much space to be here discussed. 

 It is true, that Apiarians are at issue upon the modus, and give 

 varied explanations, but the best authorities all agree, that 

 when there is a loss of the queen at the time of a supply 

 of brood-comb, the workers can make good the loss. 

 Our own theory is, that the workers are all barren fe- 

 males, the organs of generation not being perfected for the pro- 

 duction of eggs ; that on the occasion of the loss of the 

 queen, these organs are, in the worker-worm selected, by soma 

 mode and by some appliances known to the instinct of the bees, 

 duly and suitably elaborated for the production of eggs. A dif- 

 ficulty is, and not a small one, that the form and size, and length 

 of sting, are all, also, altered. As our excellent friend, Sir Roger 



