264 QUEEN REAKING. 



given to the queen-bee; for who, in a state of nature, ever 

 saw a dozen or more hollow trees or other places frequented 

 by bees, standing close together, precisely alike in size, shape, 

 and color, with their entrances all facing the same way, and 

 at exactly the same height from the ground? 



On describing to a friend our observations on the loss of 

 queens, he told us that in the management of his hens, he 

 had fallen into a somewhat similar mistake. To economize 

 room, and to give easier access to his setting hens, he had 

 partitioned a long box into a dozen or more separate apart- 

 ments. The hens, in returning to their nests, were deceived 

 by the similarity of the entrances, so that often one box con- 

 tained two or three unamiable aspirants for the honors of 

 maternity, while others were entirely forsaken. Many eggs 

 were broken, more were addled, and hardly enough hatched 

 to establish one mother as the happy mistress of a flourishing 

 family. Had he left his hens to their own instincts, they 

 would have scattered their nests, and gladdened his eyes with 

 a numerous offspring. 



Every bee-keeper, whose hives are so arranged that the 

 young queens are liable to make mistakes, must count upon 

 heavy losses. If he puts a number of hives, under circum- 

 stances similar to those described, upon a bench, or the shelves 

 of a bee-house, he can never keep their number good without 

 constant renewal. 



505. The bees are sometimes so excessively agitated when 

 their queen leaves for impregnation (120), that they ex- 

 hibit all the appearance of swarming. They seem to have an 

 instinctive perception of the dangers which await her, and 

 we have known them to gather around her and confine her, 

 as though they could not bear to have her leave. If a queen 

 is lost on her wedding excursion, the bees of an old colony 

 will gradually decline; those of an after-swarm, will either 

 unite with another hive, or dwindle away (182). 



506. It would be interesting, could we learn how bees 

 become informed of the loss of their queen. When she is 

 taken ,from them under circumstances that excite the whole 



