INTRODUCTION OF VIRGIN QUEENS. 279 



a queen, and over any spot where she alighted when her 

 swarm came forth. 



This scent of the queen was probably known in Aristotle's 

 time, who says : ' ' When the bees swarm, if the king (queen) 

 is lost, we are told that they all search for him, and follow 

 him with their sagacious smell, until they find him. " 

 Wildman says : " The scent of her body is so attractive to 

 them, that the shghtest touch of her, along any place, or 

 substance, wiU attract the bees to it, and induce them to 

 pursue any path she takes. " 



The intelligent bee-keeper has now realized, not only 

 how queens may be raised or replaced, by the use of the 

 movable-frame hive, but how any operation, which in other 

 hives is performed with difficulty, if at all, is in this rendered 

 easy and certain. No hive, however, can make the ignorant 

 or negligent very successful, even if they hve in a region 

 where the cUmate is so propitious, and the honey resources 

 80 abundant, that the bees will prosper in spite of misman- 

 agement or neglect. 



