NATURAL HISTORY. 
236 
and contributing to the general welfare of 
their community. 
Of bees there are three forts ; the ple- 
beians, the drones, and the queen. Ihe 
queen, or parent-bee, is the foul of the hive : 
to her all the reft are fo attached, that they 
will follow her wherever fhe goes. If Ihe 
happotis to die, all their labours are at an end, 
an univerfal mourning enfues, and all her 
fubjefts die, by rejefting their food. Should 
a new queen arife, before this cataftrophe 
attends the hive, joy renovates their fpi- 
rits, and their toils are renewed. This has 
been tried by removing the chryfalis of a 
queen-bee from one hive to another, which 
had loft its own emprefs. But this attach- 
ment is only in proportion to the utility fhe 
affords to the commonwealth. She is fo 
prolific, that flie lays 15 or 18,000 eggs, 
which produce 800 males, four or five 
queen bees, and the reft neuters, or ple- 
beians. Their cells differ in fize ; the largeft 
are for the males, the royal cells for the 
queens, and the fmalleft for the neuters. 0 
'1 he parent-bee depofits in thofe cells fuch 
eggs as will produce the fpecies for which 
the refpeftive cells are deftined. In two or 
three days the eggs are hatched ; when the 
neuters turn nurfes to the reft, which they 
feed moft tenderly, with unwrought wax 
and honey. After twenty-one days, the 
young bees are able to form colonies, with 
fuch indefatigable adivity, that they will do 
' more, 
