150 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



so long as there is any prospect of her leading out a swarm. 

 When the old queen departs with a swarm, a young one is 

 liberated, who immediately seeks the destruction of her sisters, 

 but is prevented by the guards. If she lead forth another 

 swarm, a second queen is liberated, and so on until further 

 swarming is considered impossible, when the reigning queen is 

 permitted to destroy her sisters. In cases where no new 

 swarm is to be sent off, the queen mother is permitted to 

 assume the office of destroyer. If at any time two queens 

 happen to come out simultaneously, it is said that a mortal 

 combat takes place at once, and the victor is acknowledged to 

 be the rightful sovereign. On the loss of a queen, the whole 

 swarm is thrown into the greatest confusion, and if there be 

 no worker eggs or brood out of which a queen can be made 

 by the peculiar process of feeding already mentioned, all labor 

 ceases and the bees soon die. 



There are three substances for which the bees forage the 

 fields. First, a resin, or gum, which is on trees; next, the 

 pollen, or fine dust, of flowers ; and lastly, the saccharine mat- 

 ter that is in the flowers. When the cells are to be built, they 

 bring home the resin, and stop all the cracks or crevices in the 

 Fig. 48. hive, so that neither the 



rain nor any insect can 

 get in to trouble them. 

 Then they set forth to 

 bring materials for wax, 

 to construct their cells. 

 The wax is made from 

 pollen. The bees swallow 

 it, and then hang them- 

 selves in festoons in the 

 hive. In the course of 

 twenty -four hours small 

 rings make their appear- 



FE9TOON8 OF BOB SECBETINO WAX. ance Qn ^ J^ Then 



the bee detaches itself from the rest of the group, and, descend- 



