THE HIVE BEE. 397 



ine wax. This operation being over, each indivi- 

 dual disgorges it in the consistency of dough, and 

 then moulds it into proper form *. 



The males are called Drones : they are unarmed, 

 and are always killed by the neuters about the 

 month of September. 



Heat is the life of these insfcts. The least degree 

 of cold benumbs them ; and in winter, unless they 

 are all crowded together, they perish. Their ene- 

 mies are the Wasp and the Hornet, who with their 

 teeth rip them open to suck out the honey contained 

 in their bladder. Sparrows have also been seen 

 with one in their bill, and another in each claw. 



There is so great a degree of attachment subsist- 

 ing between the working bees and their queenjhat, 

 if by any accident she is destroyed, the labours of 

 the community are at an end, and the rest of the 

 animals leave their hive and disperse. If, however, 

 another queen be given them, joy springs up, and 

 they crowd around her, and soon again apply to 

 their operations. Even the prospect of seeing a 

 queen will support them : this has been proved by 

 giving to a hive that had lost its own queen the 

 chrysalis of another. If a queen be taken from a 

 hive and kept apart from the working bees, she 

 "will refuse to eat, and in the course of four or five 

 days, will die of hunger. 



Mr. Wildman, whose remarks on the manage- 

 ment of bees are well known, possessed a secret 



* Barbut's Genera Insectorum. 



