CONTENTS. XV 



PAGE 



tion of a queen — The character of the embryo according to 

 Dunbar depends upon the elongation and expansion of the 

 cell — Investigation of that theory — Mr. Dunbar an ad- 

 vocate for the administration of royal jelly — Variety of 

 opinions of different apiarians on that subject — Rennie's 

 servile submission to the authority of Huber — The crea- 

 tion of the jelly-makers by Huber — Conduct of Mr. 

 Rennie examined — Candid confession of Mr. Dunbar — 

 Two systems appertaining to the propagation of the bee — 

 Hypothesis of Mr. Dunbar — Examination thereof — Con- 

 trariety of opinion of Huber and Dunbar relative to the 

 character of the eggs — Difference of character attached to 

 the bees of Huber — Their respective kinds of labour — 

 Mysterious disappearance of the eggs from the cells— The 

 eggs, according to Huber, eaten by the bees — The eggs 

 removed by the bees — Confirmed by two experiments — 

 The eggs dropped at hazard by the queen lodged by the 

 bees in a cell — The superfluous eggs removed by the bees 

 —Attention paid by the bees to the larvae of another hive 

 disproved as a general principle — Arguments of Kirby and 

 Spence — Singular hypothesis of Kirby — Effect of diet on 

 man, supposed to be the same on bees— The nature of man, 

 according to Kirby, altered by a tighter or looser dress, 

 similarly constituted with the bees — Change in the sexual 

 character of the bees occasioned by royal jelly — Kirby's 

 comparison of an infant in swaddling clothes and a bee — 

 The change in the sex of the bee accounted for by Kirby 

 — Analogy between a cow having twins and a bee — Con- 

 tradictions of Kirby — The administration of the royal jelly 

 improved upon by an anonymous French writer (note) — 

 Kirby on the secondary characters of man and woman — 

 Examination of the system — Final remarks 113 



CHAPTER VI. 



ON THE PURCHASE OF HIVES AND THE ESTABLISHMENT 

 OF AN APIARY. 



General advice to pm-chasers— Drawbacks attending the 

 purchase of a hive — The bee a great coward — Examina- 

 tion of the interior of a hive — Coolness and fortitude re- 

 quisite for the proper management of bees — Examination 

 of the exterior of a hive — Signs of a decayed hive — The 

 same to be rejected — General negligence of the cottagers 

 in the choice of their hives — Internal signs of an old hive 



The number of queen cells, the criterion of an old hive 



Twentv-seven queen cells according to Huber in one 



hive — Average number of queen cells according to dif- 

 ferent apiarians — Two queens in a swarm (note) — The 



