HISTORY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 33 



colony can possibly exist more than a few weeks, or 

 at most a few months, without her; but I deem it 

 necessary to explain things as experience has taught 

 me. 



MODE OF REARING QUEENS. 



It has been hinted already, that the worker bees 

 could rear a queen at will from any egg laid in a 

 worker cell ; this they do when left to take their own 

 course, or when in a state of nature, in order to pro- 

 vide queens for swarms that may issue. They also 

 do this when their queen is removed from the hive 

 for the purpose of making artificial swarms, or by 

 any accident, provided they have or are supplied 

 with brood-comb, containing eggs, or larva not more 

 than four days old. These are what, for the sake of 

 distinction, are called artificial queens, but I never 

 could discover any difference between them and 

 those raised naturally (or when they are preparing to 

 swarm — the other queen still remaining in the hive), 

 when in both cases they commenced with the un- 

 hatched egg and not with larva. 



When the queen is taken from a colony, instinct or 

 reason, if I may be permitted so to term it, teaches 

 the workers the importance of having her place 

 supplied, at the very earliest possible moment, with 

 another fertile queen. They are also aware, no doubt, 

 that this desirable object may be attained a few days 

 sooner, by taking a larva that has been hatched three 

 or four days, and fed on food only designed to de- 

 velope it as a common worker up to that time. The 

 cell is now greatly enlarged, by cutting out the par- 



