THE QUEEN-BEE. 9 



remains supreme. This, it must be admitted, is a wiser 

 method of settling the affair than it would be to range 

 the whole hive under two distinct banners, and so create 

 a civil war, in which the members of the rival bands 

 would kill and destroy each other for matters they indi- 

 vidually have little or no concern about : for the bees care 

 not which queen it is, so long as they are certain of having 

 one to rule over them and perpetuate the community. 



After perusing the description given above of the 

 attachment of bees to their queen, it may be Ocisy to 

 imagine the consternation a hive is thrown into when 

 deprived of her presence. The bees first make a dili- 

 gent search for their monarch in the hive, and then 

 afterwards rush forth in immense numbers to seek her. 

 When such a commotion is observed in an apiary, the 

 experienced bee-master will repair the loss by giving a 

 queen : the bees have generally their own remedy for 

 such a calamity, in their power of raising a new queen 

 from amongst their larvae ; but if neither of these means 

 be available, the whole colony dwindles and dies. The 

 following is the method by which working bees provide 

 a successor to the throne when deprived of their queen 

 by accident, or in anticipation of the first swarm, which 

 is always led by the old queen : — 



They select, when not more than three days old, an G.^g 

 or grub previously intended for a worker-bee, and then 

 enlarge the cell so selected by destroying the surround- 

 ing partitions ; they thus form a royal cradle, in shape 



