124 
nothing in it but empty combs, ft fter wait- 
ing ten days, upon looking between the 
comb', I found maggots, newly sealed up, in 
the cells. I then took out all the bees, and 
shook them, into a tub full of water, from 
which immersion I recovered them gradu- 
ally, and while doing this, I pressed each bee 
individually, to try if l could discover any 
of those stingless little drones ; but not one 
appeared, all of them having stings, to the 
number of 3000. After this I searched the 
old hive I had taken them out of, and cut oat 
all the combs that had eggs or young in 
them ; among which I found some cells that 
had new eggs in them; others whose eggs 
were converted into a small worm, and 
other some with maggots in them. I then 
restored the queen, and all the bees, putting 
them into the same hive again, but without 
leaving a single egg in it. During the suc- 
ceeding 20 days, I inspected the hive, and 
found the bees, in fine weather, working with 
great alacrity, a sure sign that the queen was 
breeding again. After this, on turning up 
the hive, and cutting out one of the brood 
coy rbs, I found new-laid eggs in some of them; 
others containing maggots ; besides some 
young bees, almost ready to emerge from 
their cells. I made another experiment, 
about the same time, upon a hive that had 
some brood combs, but had not had a large 
drone for several weeks preceding. This 
hive did not contain above 500 bees, a cir- 
cumstance that was in my favour ; as being 
less numerous, the trouble was proportion- 
ally less. I carried the hive into a close room 
in my house, that not a single bee might es- 
cape me ; but after repeating the former ex- 
periment of immersing them in water, re- 
covering, and pressing them one by one, 1 
found that every one of them had a sting. 
“ The queen, (adds Mr. Bonner,) is easily 
distinguished from all the other bees in tile 
hive, by the form, size, and colour of her 
body. 'She is considerably longer, and her 
wings are much shorter in proportion to her 
body, than those of the other bees. T he 
wings of both common bees and drones cover 
their whole bodies, whereas those of the 
queen scarcely reach beyond the middle, 
ending about the third ring of her belly. Her 
hinder part is far more tapering than those of 
the other bees : her belly or legs are yellower, 
and her upper parts of a much darker colour 
than theirs. She is also furnished with a 
sting, though some authors assert that she has 
none, having been induced to form this 
opinion, because she is extremely pacific ; so 
much so, indeed, that one may handle her , 
and even teaze her as he pleases, without 
I rovoking her resentment. For my part,- 
never can excite a queen bee to draw her 
sting, nor could I even get a sight of it, but 
when I pressed her body. A young queen 
is a great deal smaller in size than a full 
grown one, being not much longer than a 
common bee, and is therefore not sp easily 
observed when sought for. "W hen only three 
or four days old, she is very quick in her 
motions, and runs very fast; but when preg- 
nant with eggs, she becomes very large, and 
her body is heavy. Almost all writers are 
of opinion that the queen lays three diflei cut 
kinds of eggs, viz. one kind for the produc- 
tion of a queen bee, another species for 
that of the working bee, and a third for pro- 
ducing the drones. It Svas also long a re : 
AITS. 
ceivM opinion, that no queen could lay eggs 
that were capable of producing bees, without 
the assistance of drones. Schirach refutes 
this doctrine, and entirely denies such an use 
of the drones. He advances this opinion, 
that ‘ the queen lays eggs which produce 
young bees, without any communication with 
the drones; and affirms that all the working 
bees are females in disguise ; every one of 
whom, in an early stage of her existence, 
was capable of becoming a queen ; from a 
knowledge of which fact, swarms may artifi- 
cially be' obtained from the early months of 
spring, and in any succeeding month, even 
to November.’ lie asserts, which is indeed 
the grand and decisive proof, that ‘ the prac- 
tice of this art, (of raising artificial queens) 
has already extended itself through Upper 
Lusatia, the Palatinate, Bohemia, Bavaria, 
Silesia, and several parts of Germany, and 
even of Poland.” 
These experiments were repeated by Mr. 
Bonner, and the result of them is summed up 
in the following words : 
“ Having repeated the experiment again 
and again, I can now affirm, with the utmost 
confidence and certainty, that the common 
or working bees, are endowed with the 
powerful faculty of raising a queen bee from 
an egg in a common cell, when their com- 
munity stands in need of one. Their me- 
thod is this: they make choice of a common 
cell with an egg in it, and inject some white 
liquid matter from their proboscis, of a 
thickish substance. They then begin to build 
upon the edges of the cell, and enlarge it. 
On the third day it appears fairly on the out- 
side of the comb, in the form of a royal cell, 
and may now be properly so denominated. 
On the fifth day, the cell being now greatly 
enlarged, and a great deal ot the whitish 
matter thrown into it, the royal maggot ap- 
pears in the form of a semicircle, not unlike 
a new moon, being biggest in the middle 
part, and small at each end. In this form it 
is to be seen for two days swimming on the 
top, and in the midst of the matter in the 
cell; and on the seventh day it is sealed up. 
During this period she undergoes various 
metamorphoses. I have opened the royal 
cell on tire 10th day, and have found the 
maggot still on the 'top of tfie white liquor ; 
and having taken it into my hand to show it 
to any friend, it would move for a short time, 
although at this period it had not the smallest 
resemblance to a bee, being still only a 
maggot. But on the 1 4th or 15th day, the 
metamorphosis is so complete, that instead of 
a gross white worm, it comes forth a charm- 
ing young queen bee.” 
When a queen dies by any accident, the 
bees of her hive' immediately cease working, 
consume their own honey, fly about then- 
own and other hives at unusual hours, when 
other bees are at rest, and pine away if not 
soon supplied with another sovereign. Her 
loss is proclaimed by a clear and uninterrupt- 
ed humming. This sign should be a warn- 
ing to the owner of the bees to take what 
honey remains in the hive, or to procure 
them another queen. In this last case the 
flock instantly revives, and pleasure and 
activity are apparent through the whole hive. 
The dissection of the queen bee shows evi- 
dently that she lays many thousand eggs. It 
is computed that the ovaria ot a queen bee 
contain more than 5000 eggs at one time; 
ahd therefore it is not difficult to conceive 
that a queen bee may produce 10,000 oi- 
ls, 000 bees, or even more, in the space of 
two months. 
“ The working, or common bee,” says Mr. 
Bonner, “ is smaller than either the queen 
or the drone bee. They have four wings 
fastened to their middle part, by which they 
are not only enabled to liy with heavy loads, 
but also to' make those well-known sounds 
and hummings to each other, which are sup- 
posed to be their only form of speech. They 
have also six legs fastened, to their middle. 
The two foremost of these are the shortest, 
and with these they unload themselves of their 
treasures. The two in the middle are some- 
what longer, and the two last are longest. 
On the outside of the middle joint of these 
last, there is a small cavity in the form of a 
marrow-spoon, in which the bees collect by 
degrees those loads of wax they carry home 
to their hives: this hollow groove is peculiar 
to the working bee. Neither the queen nor 
the drones have any resemblance of it. 
Each foot terminates in two hooks, with their 
points opposite to each other; in the midtile 
of these hooks there is a little thin appendix, 
which when unfolded enables the insects to 
fasten themselves to glass or the most polish- 
ed bodies. This part they likewise employ 
for transmitting the small particles of crude 
wax which they find upon flowers, to the 
cavity in their thighs. The honey-bladder 
is a reservoir, in which is deposited the! 
honey that the bee sips from the cups of the 
flowers, after it has passed through the pro- j 
boscis, and through the narrow pipes that 
connect the head, breast, and belly of the 
bee. This bladder, when full, is of the size of 
a small pea, and is so transparent that the 
colour of the honey can be distinguished 
through it. The sting is situated at the ex- 
tremity of the belly, and the head or root of 
it is placed contiguous to the small bladder 
that contains the venom. It is connected to 
the belly by certain small muscles, by means 
of which thef bee can dart it out and draw it 
in with great force and quickness. In length 
it is about the 6th part of an inch. It is of a 
horny substance ; is largest at the root, and 
tapers gradually towards the point, which is 
extremely small and sharp; and when ex- 
amined by the microscope, appears to be po- 
lished exceedingly smooth. It is hollow 
within like a tube, that the venomous liquor 
may pass through it when it strikes any ani- 
mal, which it does the very instant that the 
sting pierces the skin, and insinuates itself 
into the wound, which proves mortal to 
many small insects, as well as to the bee her- 
self when she leaves her sting in the wound ; 
as it draws after it the bladder, and sometimes 
part of the entrails of the bee. These work- 
ing bees may be said to compose the whole 
community, except in the season of the 
drones, which hardly lasts three months. 
During all the other nine months, there are 
no other bees in the hive, except them and 
the queen.” 
In the Philosophical Transactions, No. 
clxxii. vol. i. we have an account ot a species 
of honey bee found in some parts of America, 
very different in form and manners from the 
common bee of Europe. Their combs are 
composed of a series of small bottles or blad 
ders of wax, of a dusky brown or blackish 
colour; and each nearly ol the size and shape 
