BEES. 143 



destroyed, or the hive should become so popu- 

 lous, that a part of its inhabitants may have to 

 remove. 



The eggs which have been deposited in the 

 cells, in the course of a few days, pass into a grub 

 state, and are carefully fed by the untiring work- 

 ers, with a peculiar food they prepare for them. 

 This continues for about a week, when the grubs 

 or maggots wrap themselves in a silken web, and 

 are closed up in their cells with a covering of wax. 

 In this state they remain for a fortnight, changing 

 their skins several times, and finally becoming 

 perfect bees, they eat their way through the lid of 

 their nests. In a few hours they join their fellows, 

 and fly away with them, capable at once of doing 

 all that these can or have d<one. 



From the rapid increase of numbers in a hive, 

 they often become over-tenanted. When this is 

 the case, the bees may be observed to be agitated 

 and uneasy, running in and out, and no work 

 going forwards. There is, in fact, a sort of civil 

 war raging, which ends by a portion of the bees 

 being driven out. This is called swarming, and 

 the expelled bees are always accompanied by one 

 or more queens, which govern the rest, and wher- 

 ever they settle, the whole number immediately 

 alight round them, in a dense cluster. The keep- 

 ers of bees take this opportunity to turn an empty 

 hive over them, and in this they at once settle 

 themselves, and become a new colony. 



