COMB. 103 
the imagination of bee-keepers, we will try to demonstrate 
that, in the building of cells, they simply follow their incli- 
nation ; as do all other beings, in the acts that they perform. 
But we have first to put forward a few facts, which are gen- 
erally accepted, on which we will ground our reasoning. 
228. ist, A swarm (406), hived on empty frames, 
always begins its constructions by worker or small cells: 
2d, If the queen of a swarm is very prolific (97), very 
little of large, or store-comb, will generally be built by her 
bees: 
3d, If,, on the contrary, from old age, or from some 
other cause, the fecundity of a queen is deficient (155), 
her bees will fill the hive with a large quantity of store- 
combs: 
4th, If the queen of a swarm is removed, or dies while 
the bees are building, all the combs, made during her ab- 
sence, will consist of store-cells: 
5th, If all or part of the store-combs of a hive are re- 
moved, the bees will rebuild large cells, at least three times 
out of four. 
229. Besides these five propositions, we will remember 
that queens prefer to lay in small cells (145), and that they 
seem to know how to ask the workers to narrow the orifices 
of the store-cells, when there are no others in the hive to 
receive their impregnated eggs (146 to 148). 
We have to remark also that, while the queen prefers the 
narrow cells, the workers prefer to build the wide ones, 
since they cease to construct worker-cells when the queen is 
gone, or when she is not on the spot, to remind them, by 
her presence, that she needs narrow cells for her impregnated 
eggs (146), and we will find out the cause of such differ- 
ences, in the number and in the position of each kind of 
combs, by following the work of the bees, in some of the 
circumstances in which they may have to build. 
230. (a) The queen of a swarm is very prolific, the crop 
