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animate the hive, the bees are conscious of her 
loss ; after searching for her through the hive for 
a day or more, they examine the royal cells, 
which are of a peculiar construction and reversed 
in position, hanging vertically, with the mouth 
underneath. If no eggs or larva are to be found 
in these cells, they then enlarge several of those 
which are appropriated to the eggs of neuters, and 
in which queen eggs have been deposited. They 
soon attach a royal cell to the enlarged surface, 
and the queen bee, enabled now to grow, protrudes 
itself by degrees into the royal cell, and comes out 
perfectly formed, to the great pleasure of the bees. 
Now this in itself is curious and wonderful. 
There is no need of adding superhuman powers 
to an insect, when the simple facts show such sin- 
gular sagacity. The truth is, that the queen or 
mother bee lays the neuter eggs in certain cells of 
a peculiar construction ; in fact, the eggs are laid, 
at least many of them, as soon as the foundations 
are begun, before the cells are built. The bees 
know from the peculiar shape of the egg that it is 
to have a cell of certain dimensions. When the 
neuter and drone eggs are deposited, the royal 
cells are then filled, for abundant observations 
prove that the queen eggs are laid last. 
If the royal cells are not sufficient to hold the 
queen eggs, they are laid in the common cells, and 
in the course of the regular business of the hive, 
these cells are attended to with the rest. 
When the larva is of a size to fill the cell, a 
covering of wax is put on, and here ends the life, 
or rather the embryo, of the queen ; for no longer 
having room to expand, it perishes, and is dragged 
out in the nymph form, as soon as the bees dis- 
cover that animation is extinct. 
