86 AN EASY METHOD 



and the bees in as healthy and prosperous condition as any 

 of our hives this 18th day of March, 1840. 



In this experiment we were a little disappointed in one 

 respect only, which originated in our own habits, instead of 

 that of thcbees; inasmuch as it has been our usual prac- 

 tice to compel the bees to make extra queens in small 

 drawers, by their removal from the parent stock, and also 

 by dividing them for new colonies, without swarming, by 

 the use of the large drawer. In this case, we supposed that 

 the bees would enter the drawer, erect a cell, and raise their 

 sovereign in the chamber ; but. instead of doing this, they 

 made their arrangements below, where the main colony were 

 located, and carried down the larva;, where it was more con- 

 venient for them to exercise their peculiar instinctive ingen- 

 uity among new comb, of their own manufacture. 



The peculiar instinct of the bees as manifested by them, 

 in changing the nature of grubs of workers to perfect fe- 

 males or queens, to fill vacancies occasioned by the de- 

 parture of the old queen with the swarm, and other vacated 

 cases, is the foundation of their whole economy. 



That bees have the power to convert the grub or larva of 

 a worker to a queen, there cannot be a doubt ; but, whether 

 the larva of a drone can be changed by them to a iqueen, yet 

 remains to be proved by experiment, which has never been 

 done to my knowledge. It is believed that all the eggs, 

 when laid by the queen, are of one class or sex ; for a whole 

 litter of eggs is frequently deposited in one kind of cells, 

 and all hatch out workers, or drones, according to the size 

 of the cells where they are raised. It is found, also, that 

 the queen in some instances deposits her eggs promiscuously, 

 some in drone-cells, and otlfers in workers', or in any cells 

 that are found empty, and the young larvffi are nursed! as 

 the instincts of the bees are directed by the cell that con- 

 tains them. 



