278 THE BEE KEEPER'S MANUAL, 



another, and devoured all the eggs which were given to 

 them for that purpose ! This colony was afterwards sup- 

 plied with an unimpregnated queen, but they refused to 

 accept of her, and attempted at once to smother her to 

 death. I then gave them a fertile queen, but she met with 

 no better treatment. Facts of a similar kind have been 

 noticed, by other observers : thus it seems that bees may not 

 Only become reconciled, as it were, to living without a moth- 

 er,' but may pass into such an unnatural state as not only to 

 decline to provide themselves with another, but actually to 

 refuse to accept of one by whose agency they might be res- 

 cued from impending ruin ! Before expressing too much 

 astonishment at such foolish conduct, let us seriously inquire 

 if it has not often an exact parallel in our obstinate rejection 

 of the provisions which God has made in the Gospel for 

 our moral and religious welfare. 



If a colony which refuses to rear another queen, has a 

 range of comb given to it containing maturing brood, 

 these poor motherless innocents, as soon as they are able 

 to work, perceive their loss, and will proceed at once, if 

 they have the means, to supply it ! They have not yet grown 

 so hardened by habit to unnatural and ruinous courses, as not 

 to feel that something absolutely indispensable to their safely 

 is wanting in their hive. 



A word to the young who may read this treatise. Al- 

 though enjoined to " remember your Creator in the days of 

 your youth," you are constantly tempted to neglect your 

 religious duties, and to procrastinate their performance until 

 some more convenient season. Like the old bees in a hive 

 without a queen, that seek only their present enjoyment, for- 

 getful of the ruin which must surely overtake them, so you 

 may find that when manhood and old age arrive, you will 

 liave even less disposition to love and serve the Lord than 



