66 Buz. 



have heard of a queen having a great many attend- 

 ants hanging about her at court ; now you know 

 what it means! " 



At this moment the cluster of bees began to move, 

 and to spread about. 



The hive in which they had been taken was very 

 different to the old straw butt they had left, their 

 new abode being a square deal box without any bot- 

 tom. Into the back of this box a pane of glass had 

 been introduced, through which the bees might be 

 watched at their work; and at the top of it was a 

 short narrow slit, closed at present, but capable of 

 being opened from without, by means of a zinc 

 slide. 



This box was placed in a wooden cupboard, which 

 stood on four legs, had a gable roof, and doors open- 

 ing at the back, and was large enough to contain 

 three other boxes of the same size. Horizontal 

 apertures, about two inches long and just high 

 enough to admit a bee, were cut in the cupboard at 

 the bottom of its front, and opposite each of the 

 boxes within. 



The floor of the cupboard, which was also the 

 floor of the boxes, was cut away about the eighth of 

 an inch deep, just underneath each of these aper- 

 tures, and made to slope up toward the interior, so 



