THE GENESIS OF THE QUEEN III 
The old trite saying among beemen, that bees 
never do anything invariably, receives constant 
illustration in any near study of the ways of the 
honey-bee. It has been seen that a colony de- 
prived of its queen, and having no worker-egg or 
grub less than three days old wherewith to make 
good its deficiency, is commonly doomed to early 
extinction. But, on rare occasions, colonies sup- 
posed to be in this plight will make an unexpected 
and inexplicable recovery. After a period of the 
doldrums, extending for three weeks or more, a 
sudden renewed activity and exhilaration is observ- 
able in the hive. The pollen-bearers, who have 
been hitherto almost idle, resume their busy work; 
and, on the hive being opened, all the evidences of 
the presence of a fertile, laying queen-mother are 
again to be seen. In many instances in which a 
new lease of life has thus been vouchsafed to a 
colony under what seems an inexorable ban, no 
doubt appearances have been deceptive. The 
bees may have discovered in their midst a worker- 
larva not yet too far advanced for promotion to 
queenship, and thus have achieved their salvation 
at the eleventh hour. But, in at least one case, 
the testimony against the possibility of this seems 
complete. A nucleus stock, containing only three or 
four small combs and only about five hundred bees, 
was deprived of its queen. Ten days later every 
queen-cell that had been formed in the interval 
was destroyed, leaving in the hive not a single egg 
