32 THE BEE AS AN INSECT. [Ch. I. 



The following passage from Dzierzon describes in a 

 popular way the round of the bees' concerns as they vary 

 with the seasons: "In spring, when all Nature has 

 awakened to a new life, the activity of the hive is 

 especially directed to the increasing of the stock, the 

 laying of eggs ; at first, indeed, none but worker eggs are 

 laid, and at the outset only a few hundred cells in a 

 day, but afterwards thousands, as every hive seeks in the 

 first place to make its own continuance secure. When 

 gradually the number of bees has through the daily 

 augmentation become perceptibly increased, when the 

 pastures have more fully unfolded themselves, and the 

 warmth in the hive has reached a higher degree, then, in 

 the confidence of strength and of a sort of maturity, and 

 having regard to the remoter object of increase through 

 connubial relations, drone brood is also laid. Finally, 

 although not in every case, in greater or less number 

 queen cells are prepared. As soon as one or other of 

 these is sealed over, the old queen feels no longer safe 

 in the hive, and leaves it on a fine day at noon with 



the so-called ' fore-swarm.' In most years and 



most districts the bee store has passed its climax and 

 entered upon its decline after the swarming period. 

 The activity of the bees now takes another direction. 

 In order to leave over as much honey as possible for 

 the provisicnless season that stands before them, a 

 system of saving is now pursued. To compensate for 

 the unavoidable loss of population from the journeys 



