The Life of the Bee 



haustible treasure of their marvellous laws 

 and customs, on their love of peace and 

 order, their devotion to the public weal, 

 and fidelity to the future ; on the adroit 

 strength, the earnest disinterestedness, of 

 their character, and, above all, on the un- 

 tiring devotion with which they fulfil 

 their duty. But the enumeration of such 

 procedures belongs rather to technical 

 treatises on apiculture, and would take us 

 too far.^ 



* The stranger queen is usually brought into the 

 hive enclosed in a little cage, with iron wires, which 

 is hung between two combs. The cage has a door 

 made of wax and honey, which the workers, their 

 anger over, proceed to gnaw, thus freeing the prisoner, 

 whom they will often receive without any ill-will. 

 Mr. Simmins, manager of the great apiary at Rotting- 

 dean, has recently discovered another method of intro- 

 ducing a queen, which, being extremely simple and 

 almost invariably successfol, bids fair to be generally 

 adopted by apiarists who value their art. It is the 

 behaviour of the queen that usually makes her intro- 

 duction a matter of so great difficulty. She is almost 

 1 06 



