260 THE BEE NATION. 



from a distance, lie need only hold a little stick smeared 

 with honey at the mouth of the hive, and carry to the water 

 the first few bees which settle on it. These few are enough 

 to bring the neighborhood of the water and its exact place 

 to the knowledge of the whole colony on their return. Ilerr 

 L. Brofft relates, in the " Zoological Gardens " (XVlIf. 

 Year, No. 1, p. 67), that a poor and a rich hive stood next 

 each other on his father's bee-stand, and the latter suddenly 

 lost its queen. Before the owner had come to a decision 

 thereupon the bees of the two hives came to a mutual under- 

 standing as to the condition of their two States. The dwellers 

 in the queenless hive, with their stores of provisions, went 

 over into the less populous or poorer hive, after they had 

 assured themselves, by many influential deputations, as to 

 the state of the interior of the poor hive, and, as appeared, 

 especially as to the presence of an egg-laying queen ! 



The best means of mutual communication among bees, 

 as among ants, lies certainly in their feelers or antennae, with 

 which they touch each other in many various ways. As 

 the feelers are indispensable to them in all their work for 

 arrangement and testing, no greater injury can be done 

 them than cutting these off. The working bees subjected to 

 such an operation became incapable of all work, and gene- 

 rally leave the hive in which they can no longer be of use. 

 The drones also can no longer find their way about the 

 passages to seek their food. They, therefore, also leave 

 the hive in the darkness of which they have no guide. The 

 queens lose with their feelers not only the consciousness of 

 their maternal duties and the capability of discharging them, 

 but also their feelings of mutual hate and jealousy. 

 Antennae-less queens pass closely by each other without 

 recognition, and even the working bees seem to share 

 their indifference, as though they were only apprised of 

 danger menacing their nation by the excitement of their 

 queen. 



The best way to observe the power of communication 

 possessed by bees by means of their interchange of touches, 

 is to take away the queen from a hive. In a little time, about 

 an hour afterwards, the sad event will be noticed by a small 

 part of the community, and these will stop working and run 

 hastily about over the comb. But this only concerns part of 

 the hive, and the side of a single comb. The excited bees, how- 



