288 LOSS OF THE QUEEN. 



an average, only one queen in four was found to regain her 

 own hive ! I do not remember that the queens of the two 

 end colonies, which being the first and the last in the row, 

 could easily be distinguished from the others, failed in a 

 single instance to return in safety ! 



The young queens in sallying forth from their hives, 

 would take the usual precautions to mark their precise lo- 

 cality, but owing to the very great uniformity of the hives in 

 size, shape, color, height, and position, it was next to im- 

 possible for them to be certain of returning to their own. 

 Many even of the workers, were constantly making the 

 same mistake, and entering hives adjoining their own. 



If a traveler should be set down in a dark night, before a 

 hotel in a strange city, and on rising, in the morning, should 

 find the streets all filled with buildings precisely similar to his 

 own, he would only be able, after an excursion abroad, to 

 return to his proper place, 5 by previously ascertaining its 

 number, or counting how many houses it was from the cor- 

 ner! Such a numbering faculty, however, has not been given 

 to the queen bee, nor indeed, in a state of nature, would it 

 ever be needed : for who ever saw, in a state of nature a 

 dozen or more hollow trees, or other places frequented by 

 bees, all standing close together, precisely alike in size, shape, 

 and color, and with their entrances all facing the same way, 

 and at exactly the same height from the ground ! 



On describing to a friend, these observations on the loss of 

 queens, I was highly amused to find, that in his management 

 of the domestic hen, he had fallen into a mistake similar 

 to that made by so many Apiarians, with their bees. For 

 economy of room, and greater convenience of access to his 

 setting hens, he had partitioned a long box, into a dozen or 

 more apartments, each containing one nest. The result of 

 this orderly arrangement was very unfortunate. The hens, 



