92 CELLS DESERTION EXPERIMENTS. 



cell is perpendicular. Those both of the drones and 

 working bees are horizontal. The cell of the drone 

 is of an irregular form, that of the working or common 

 bee a perfect hexagon. On the side of the middle 

 combs the cell is constructed, which is destined to 

 receive the egg, of which a young queen is to be 

 born. It has been discovered by the curious, that 

 nature imparts the wonderful faculty to tne queen, 

 of foreknowing the "kind of egg she is about to lay, 

 and of choosing the particular cell in which it ought 

 to be placed. A queen is known to lay four or five 

 hundred eggs in a day. Such are the discoveries or 

 opinions of practical apiarians. 



Should the number of labouring bees be insuffi- 

 cient for the purpose of constructing the necessary 

 cells, the queen will most probably forsake the hive, 

 however well supplied with provision, and will be 

 most ready to take this step in fine weather. All, or 

 part of the stock will follow, assisting her, it is 

 averred, when wearied, from being unaccustomed to 

 flight, by bearing her up with their legs and wings. 

 The old remedy to prevent this desertion was, to 

 place empty combs in the hive, which does not 

 always succeed, from the disgust taken by the queen. 

 The preferable method is supposed to be, when there 

 is a hive at hand, the colony of which has died during 

 the season, to place over it the hive about to be de- 

 serted. The eggs left in the borrowed hive will thus 

 be hatched, and a colony raised in sufficient numbers. 

 The accidental death of the queen, or departure, will 

 occasion the bees to forsake their hives. Some years 

 since, according to report, the Rev. Dr. Dunbar, by 



