NATURAL SWAKMING. 143 



puts in the queen-cell, the work may be safely performed. 

 And if no combs have been formed at all before the queen 

 has been lost, how can a royal cell be given to the swarm 1 

 In such a case, we resort to a pin or skewer of wood, 

 sharpened at both ends. The royal cell, with a bit of 

 comb attached, is stuck on the one end of this skewer, 

 the other is stuck in the side of the hive, leaving the 

 comb with the infant queen in the centre of the swarm. 

 The bees know the value of the boon thus bestowed; a 

 great calm and hum of joy take the place of the wild roar 

 of excitement. If neither a matured queen nor an infant 

 one can be obtained, the case is not at all hopeless. Ee- 

 member that bees can make queens from common eggs ; 

 so that we have only to cut a small bit of comb containing 

 eggs from another hive, and place this bit of comb between 

 the combs of the queenless one, in order to avert the 

 threatened loss of the swarm or mother hive. The moment 

 the bees of a queenless, eggless hive receive the gift of 

 one or a few eggs from another hive through the hands 

 of the owner, they begin to fashion royal cells and royal 

 tenants in them. Two notable instances of bees withoiit 

 queens finding eggs for themselves have we known. They 

 had been without queens, and of course eggs too, for four- 

 teen days or thereabouts, when an egg was seen in a royal 

 cell in each hive. This was a most unusual and extra- 

 ordinary occurrence ! Where did the eggs come from? 

 They must have been stolen from other hives, not by the 

 hand of man, but by two bees, remarkable alike for wis- 

 dom and courage. Brave bees ! you injured no other 

 community, but you saved your own from ruin and ex- 

 tinction ! 



If a second swarm, or the old hive, lose its queen on 

 its marriage-tour, and the other does not, they could be 



