THE ENTOMOLOGIST. 251 



combs of a hive from which I had previously removed 

 the common queen ; and having been allowed to remain 

 for twenty-four or thirty-six hours in this condition, the 

 cover was drawn, and she, with her fellow-prisoners, was set 

 at liberty. The latter were seized upon and killed instantly, 

 but the queen disappeared among the combs. A few hours 

 after, observing some signs of excitement, I opened the hive, 

 and discovered the queen encased in a dense mass of bees. 

 Having separated them carefully, by catching each individual 

 bee and throwing it away, her persecutors were reduced to 

 two or three ; and now was the critical time. I had great 

 difficulty in preventing these from inflicting a fatal sting, 

 and had to crush one or two of them between my fingers to 

 avoid such a catastrophe. Having freed her from their 

 embraces, I again clapped her into the queen cage, and shut 

 her up among the combs for another period of imprisonment. 

 When I thought that sufficient time had elapsed, and that the 

 bees would surely have become accustomed to her presence, 

 and acquainted with her person, she was again set at liberty. 

 The hive was allowed to remain undisturbed for some hours, 

 at the end of which, on going to ascertain the result, I found 

 her lying dead on the ground outside the hive. I have other 

 instances where the same sort of encasement has taken place, 

 but the bees have of their own accord gradually unfolded 

 themselves, loosened their grasp of each other and the queen, 

 and she has come out of the ordeal scatheless. Occasionally 

 I have found a wing or a leg crippled, or altogether missing, 

 having been maimed in the cruel embrace of her subsequently 

 loving subjects. Although I have raised a very large number 

 of artificial queens, my plan of late years has been to let the 

 hives or small swarms alone, and on no account to disturb 

 them or the bees to which strange queens have been given, 

 for many days. Although I have no reason to doubt that the 

 same kind of queen encasement has frequently taken place, 

 yet I have hardly ever lost a queen from this cause since 

 adopting this plan. I believe that the very anxiety of the 

 bee master too frequently defeats his object — the bees are 

 excited to anger which they would not otherwise have 

 manifested. — S. Bevan Fox; in ^ Gardener s Chronicle,^ 

 January 15, 1870. 



