BEE-KEEPERS MANUAL 33 



in the dead of winter, lai-vse have frequently been found 

 in the centres of very strong stocks* or swarms ; and it 

 appears to be thus ordained by nature, in erder to always 

 admit of the bees being able to provide against the loss 

 of their sovereign. In their natural state in the forest 

 with an abundance of room, perhaps they never expe- 

 rience the loss of a queen, without being able to replace 

 her, except in cases of small swarms issuing, in which 

 case, they would be liable to the same casualties of do- 

 mestic swarms, until they have existed a season or two, 

 and have become numerous. 



THE SUPPOSED CAUSE OF THE FORMATION OF FERTILE 

 WORKERS. 



The reader now having a little insight into the man- 

 ner in which queens are made, I will proceed to state 

 in what manner these semi-fertile workers are supposed 

 to be produced ; for, I must inform the reader, that all 

 the insight that has ever yet been obtained on this sub- 

 lect, is nothing more than simple conjecture and hypo- 

 thesis. This is, as I have observed, " terra incognita," 

 or unknown land, to the apiarian explorer, and may be 

 set down as one of the unfathomable mysteries of the 

 nature of the bee. 



The royal cells being constructed, or in progress of 

 construction, and containing the larvae to be transformed 

 into queens, and being fed on the royal jelly, as afore- 



* Every family of bees is termed a stock, after the first year of 

 their existence, and a swarm during the first year or season. 



