NATURAL HISTORY. * . ay 
If the happens'to die, all their labors are atan end,” 
an univerial mourning enfues, and all her fubjects 
die, by rejecting their food. Should a rew queen ax 
rife, before this cataftrophe attends the hive, joy ren- 
ovates their fpitits, and their toils ere renewed. Vhis_ 
has been tried by removing the chryfalis of a queen 
bee from one hive, to another lich had loft its own 
-emprefs. But this attachment is only in’ proportion 
to the utility fhe affords to the commonwealth. She 
is fo prolific, that fhe lays 15 or 18,900 eggs, which 
_ produce 800 males, four or five queen bees. and the 
relt neuters, or plebcians. Their cells differ in lize ; 
the largeft are for the males, ‘the royal cells for the 
queens, and the fmalleft for the neuters. “The parent 
_ bee depofits in thofe cells fuch eggs as will produce’ 
_ the {pecies for which the refpeétive cells are deftined. 
in two of three days the eggs are hatched ; when the 
_meuters turn nurfes to the reft, which they teed moft 
tenderly, with unwrought wax and koney. After 
twentyone days, the young bees are able to form 
colonies, with fuch indefatigable activity, that they 
will.do more, in one week’s time, than they will dur- 
iig all the reft of the year. Sometimes there are bees 
iets laborious,, who fwpport themfelves by pillaging 
the reft of the hives; on which a battle enfues be- 
tween the induftrious and the defpoiling infects. Fre- 
quently contentions will arife among them, whena 
new colony feck their habitation in a hive already oc- 
_cuipied. Their foes are the wafp and hornet; which 
wiil rip open their bellies with their teeth, in order to 
fuck out the honéy contained in the bladder. Spar-- 
rows, fometimes, are feen to take one in their bill, 
and one in each of their claws. 
_ , The neuter bees collect from Rowers their honey 
and unwrought wax: They roll themfelves over thé 
_famina, and thus caufe the dufty effence to ftick to 
whe hairs which cover different parts of their bodies. ” 
Being thus laden, they vet with their burden to * 

the hive; where they are’metby other bees, that 
_ {wallow the wax they bring”: This being afterwards 
refined in the laboratory of their {tomachs, is again 
| produced by the mouth, as genuine wax, in the form 
*% 
