LOSS OF THE QUEEN. 265 



colony, we can easily see how they find it out; for, as a 

 tender mother, in time of danger, is all anxiety for her help- 

 less children, so bees, when alarmed, always seek first to assure 

 themselves of the safety of their queen. If, however, the 

 queen is very carefully removed, several hours may elapse 

 before they realize their loss. How do they first become aware 

 of it? Perhaps some dutiful bee, anxious to embrace her 

 mother, makes diligent search for her through the hive. The 

 intelligence that she cannot be found being noised abroad, 

 the whole family is speedily alarmed. At such times, instead 

 of calmly conversing, by touching each other's antennae, they 

 may be seen violently striking them together, and by the 

 most impassioned demonstrations manifesting their agony and 

 despair. 



We once removed the queen of a small colony, the bees 

 of which took wing and filled the air, in search of her. 

 Although she was returned in a few minutes, royal-cells 

 were found two days later. The queen was unhurt, and the 

 cells untenanted. Was this work begun by some that did not 

 believe the others, when assured that she was safe? or from 

 the apprehension that she might be removed again? 



507. As soon as the bees begin to fly briskly in the 

 Spring, a colony which does not industriously gather pollen, 

 or accept of flour (267), is almost certain to have no queen, 

 or one that is not fertile— unless it is on the eve of perishing 

 from starvation. 



A colony is sure to be queenless, if, after taking its first 

 Spring-flight, the bees, by roaming, in an enquiring manner 

 in and out of the hive show that some great calamity has 

 befallen them. Those that come from the fields, instead of 

 entering the hive with that dispatchful haste so character- 

 istic of a bee returning, well loaded, to a prosperous home, 

 usually linger about the entrance with an idle and dissatisfied 

 appearance, and the colony is restless, late in the day, when 

 others are quiet. Their home, like that of a man who is 

 cursed in his domestic relations, is a melancholy place, and 

 they enter it only with reluctant and slow-moving steps. 



