1 8 THE BEE AS AN INSECT. [Ch. i. 



royal jelly, so that the poor things on hatching are soon 

 dosed to death in a frantic effort to change their sex ! 

 And if drone eggs are not to hand they will even try to 

 hatch a queen out of a lump of pollen ! In more senses 

 than one then we see that when bees have lost their 

 queen they have lost their head. 



As curiously dissimilar, though not discordant, in- 

 stances of the effect of removing the queen from a hive, 

 we may mention that Mr. Langstroth once tried the 

 experiment for only two or three minutes, when he had 

 all in confusion immediately, and found two days after 

 that royal cells had been prepared ; while Dr. Sevan once 

 effected the removal so quietly that for eighteen hours 

 all went on as usual, and then on a sudden the fact 

 became known, and everything was changed into agita- 

 tion and distraction. Should a queen so separated be 

 detained from her subjects, she resents the interference, 

 refuses food, pines, and dies. 



The observations upon the queen bee needful to verify 

 the above-mentioned facts can only be made in hives 

 constructed for the purpose, of which the " Unicorob 

 Observatory Hive " is the best. In ordinary hives the 

 queen is scarcely ever to be seen ; where there are 

 several rows of comb she invariably keeps between them, 

 both for warmth and for greater security from danger. 

 The writer has frequently observed in stocks which have 

 uafortunately died, that the queen was one of the last to 

 expire; and she is always more difficult to gain pos- 



