LOSS OF THE QUEEN. 259 
stincts, they would have scattered their nests, and glad- 
dened his eyes with a numerous offspring. 
Every bee-keeper, whose hives are so arranged that the 
young queens are liable to make mistakes, must count upon 
heavy losses. If he puts a number of hives, under circum- 
stances similar to those described, upon a bench, or the 
shelves of a bee-house, he can never.keep their number 
good without constant renewal. 
505. The bees are sometimes so excessively agitated 
when their queen leaves for impregnation (120), that they 
exhibit all the appearance of swarming. ‘They seem to 
have an instinctive perception of the dangers which await 
her, and we have known them to gather around her and 
confine her, as though they could not bear to have her 
leave. If a queen is lost on her wedding excursion, the 
bees of an old colony will gradually decline; those of an 
after-swarm, will either unite with another hive, or dwindle 
away (182). 
506. It would be interesting, could we learn how bees 
become informed of the loss of their queen. When she is 
taken from them under circumstances that excite the whole 
colony, we can easily see how they find it out; for, as a 
tender mother, in time of danger, is all anxiety for her 
helpless children, so bees, when alarmed, always seek first 
to assure themselves of the safety of their queen. If, how- 
ever, 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 antennz, they may be seen violently 
striking them together, and by the most impassioned dem- 
onstrations manifesting their agony and despair (181). 
