The Family i 27 



The young queen, having estabhshed her right by battle, 

 flies abroad and high in the air, mates, receiving from the 

 drone a supply of fertilizing material which is stored in a 

 small pouch designed for the purpose and the contents of 

 which she is apparently able to use at will, fertilizing some 

 eggs and leaving others unfertilized. 



Browning, in his poem entitled " Popularity," refers to 

 the flight of the queen, where Solomon in his robe of gold, 

 sitting upon the throne in a room hung with tapestries of 

 Tyrian blue, is 



" Most like the centre-spike of gold 

 Which burns deep in the blue-bell's womb 

 What time, with ardors manifold, 

 The bee goes singing to her groom 

 Drunken and overbold." 



A new race of bees can be formed in an apiary by 

 removing the queen and introducing another impreg- 

 nated queen of the desired breed. Since the new queen 

 has power to fertilize her own eggs, her progeny will be 

 pure ; and since the workers and drones Hve but a few 

 months, while the queen hves several years, after one 

 season the hive will be peopled by the new stock. A bee- 

 hive remains tenanted year after year by apparently the 

 same bees, but as a matter of fact the workers and drones 

 are constantly dying and constantly being renewed. Brief 

 life is here their portion, and they live their few weeks or 

 months and then, dying, make room for the new-comers 

 that are ready to take their places and pass through the 

 same brief period of life on earth. 



The queen-bee has great tenacity of life, as well as 

 longevity. She resists the effects of chloroform much 

 longer than either worker or drone, and will often continue 

 alive in conditions that have proved fatal to the workers 

 confined with her. 



