44:8 HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. 



stimulating character; and it is now well known that if a young 

 stud which has been hatched in one of the worker cells be re- 

 moved into the royal cell, and supplied with royal food, it be- 

 comes developed into a queen, and, in time, is qualified to rule 

 and populate a hive. This remarkable provision of nature is in- 

 tended to meet a difficulty which sometimes occurs when the 

 reigning queen dies, and there is no royal larva in the cell. 



Although the primary object of the bee-cell is to serve as a 

 store-house and a nursery, it is also made to answer other pur- 

 poses. When the Bee seeks repose, it almost invariably creeps 

 into a cell, and buries itself deep therein, the whole head, thorax, 

 and part of the abdomen being hidden. If a hive be examined 

 in the winter time, every cell that happens to be empty will be 

 tenanted by a Bee ; and when the poor insects are put to death 

 by the absurd and cruel plan of smothering them with the fumes 

 of burning sulphur, they will be found to have vainly sought es- 

 cape from the suffocating vapor by forcing themselves into the 

 recesses of the empty cells. 



As a general fact, the Bees place the honey in the coolest part 

 of the hive, and the young brood in the warmest, so that bee- 

 keepers are enabled to procure honeycomb of wonderful purity 

 by affixing glass or wooden caps to their hives. These caps are 

 necessarily cooler than the body of the hive, and therein the Bees 

 will store large quantities of honey. 



The chief point which distinguishes the comb of the Hive-bee 

 from that of other insects is the manner in which the cells are 

 arranged in a double series. The combs of the wasp or the hor- 

 net are single, and are arranged horizontally, so that their cells 

 are vertical, with the mouths downward and the bases upward, 

 the united bases forming a floor on which the nurse wasps can 

 walk while feeding the young inclosed in the row of cells imme- 

 diately above them. 



Such, however, is not the case with the Ilive-bee. As every 

 one knows who has seen a bee-comb, the cells are laid nearly 

 horizontally, and in a double series, just as if a couple of thim- 

 bles were laid on the table with the points touching each other 

 and their mouths pointing in opposite directions. Increase the 

 number of thimbles, and there will be a tolerable imitation of a 

 bee-comb. 



There is another point which must now be examined. If the 

 bases of the cells were to be rounded like those of the thimbles, 



