Heredity in the Bee-Garden. 



has caught the bee-m,an napping, and has extended her 

 nursery to the utmost limit of the hive. She is at the end 

 of her tether, and has therefore decided to swarm. Directly 

 the bees see this they begin to prepare for the coming loss 

 of their queen by raising another, and to make sure of get- 

 ting one they always breed three or four. " 



He took out the next comb and pointed to a round con- 

 struction, about the size and shape of an acorn, hanging 

 from its lower edge. 



" That is a queen cell; and here, on the next comb, are 

 two more. One is sealed over, you see, and may hatch out 

 at any moment; and the others are nearly ready for closing. 

 They are always carefully guarded, or the old queen would 

 destroy them. And now to put an end to the swarming fit. " 



He took out all the combs but the four centre ones; and, 

 with a goose wing, gently brushed the bees off them into 

 the hive. The six combs were then taken to the extricating- 

 house hard by. The sealed honey-cells on all of them were 

 swiftly uncapped, and the honey thrown out by a turn or 

 two in the centrifugal machine. Now we went back to the 

 hive. Right in the centre the bee-master put a new, per- 

 fectly empty comb, and on each side of this came the four 

 principal brood frames with the queen still on them. Out- 

 side of these again the combs from which we had extracted 

 all the honey were brought into position. And then a rack 

 of new sections was placed over all, and the hive quickly 

 closed up. The entire process seemed the work of only a 

 few minutes. 



" Now," said the bee-master triumphantly, as he took 

 up his barrow again, " we have changed the whole aspect 

 of affairs. The population of the hive is as big as ever; but 

 instead of a house of plenty it is a house of dearth. The 

 larder is empty, and the only cure for impending famine is 

 hard work; and the bees will soon find that out and set to 

 again. Moreover, the queen has now plenty of room for 

 laying everywhere, and those exasperating prison-cradles, 

 with her future rivals hatching in them, have been done 

 away with. She has no further reason for flight, and the 

 bees, having had all their preparations destroyed, have the 

 best of reasons for keeping her. Above all, there is the new 

 super-rack, greatly increasing the hive space, and they will 

 be given a second and third rack, or even a fourth one, long 



39 



