NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY BEE. \^ 



" Another race the spring and fall supplies, 

 They droop successive and successive rise." — Evans. 



For some time after Bees emerge from the pupa state, 

 they employ themselves within the hive as Nurses and 

 comb-builders ; they may be readily distinguished by a 

 greyish bloom they appear to wear. The period of their 

 seclusion, before they commence honey gathering, varies 

 from a few days to two or three weeks, according to the 

 season, they 



" With fond attention guard each'genial cell 

 And watch the embryo, bursting from the cell." — EvANS. 



It has been stated that if the Apiarian introduces a 

 small quantity of " Royal Jelly " from a Queen cell, into 

 a Worker cell, containing a young larva, the Bees will 

 rear that selected larva into a Queen. 



I have tried this experiment, which failed ; but it is a 

 common practice in America, when wishing to compel 

 common bees to rear Ligurian Queens, for the Bee- 

 master to remove the growing Black Queen larva, and 

 replace it with a Worker larva from the Ligurian stock, 

 which will then be successfully transformed into a Queen. 



A phenomenon that sometimes happens in a Queen- 

 less hive when a Worker is found, which is sufficiently 

 fertile to oviposit, is surmised to occur from the Bees 

 having partly fed it, when a larva, on Royal Jelly, causing 

 a greater development of its sexiial organs, but yet not 

 sufficient to constitute a Queen. These fertile Workers 

 only produce drones, they are sometimes a great 

 nuisance in a hive, and from the impossibility of distin- 

 guishing them from the other workers are difficult to 

 remove. Mr. Rorl suggests that the Bees should be 

 driven, removed away from their stand, and allowed 

 to fly home.; the fertile Worker never having before 







