LOSS OF THE QUEEN. 281 



Let US to be sure, save all that we can in the cost of con- 

 struction, by the greatest economy in the use of materials ; 

 let us compel every minute to yield the greatest possible 

 practical result, by the employment of the most skillful 

 workmen and the most ingenious machinery ; but do let us 

 learn that slighting an article, so as to get up a mere sham, 

 having all the appearance of reality, with none of the 

 substance, is the poorest possible kind of pretended econo- 

 my ; to say nothing of the tendency of such a system, to 

 encourage in all the pursuits of life, the narrow and selfish 

 policy of doing nothing thoroughly, but everything with ref- 

 erence to mere outside show, or the urgent necessities of the 

 present moment. 



V\''e have yet to describe under what circumstances, by 

 far the larger proportion of hives, become queenless. After 

 the first swarm has gone out with the old mother, then both 

 the parent stock and all the subsequent swarms, will have 

 each a young queen which must always leave the hive in 

 order to be impregnated. It sometimes happens that the 

 wings of the young female are, from her birth, so imperfect 

 that she either refuses to sally out, or is unable to return to 

 the hive, if she ventures abroad. In either case, the old 

 stock must, if loft to its own resources, speedily perish. 

 Queens, in their contests with each other, are sometimes so 

 much crippled as to unfit them for flight, and sometimes they 

 are disabled by the rude treatment of the bees, who insist 

 on driving them away from the royal cells. The great ma. 

 iority, however, of queens which are lost, perish when they 

 leave the hive in search of the drones. Their extra size and 

 slower flight make them a most tempting prey to the birds, 

 ever on the watch in the vicinity of the hives ; and many 

 in this way, perish. Others are destroyed by sudden gusts 

 of winds, which dash them against some hard object, or 

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