"The bees who happened to be near the stranger approached her, touched her with their antennæ, passed their probosces over all parts of her body, and presented her with honey. Then they retired, giving place to others, who approached in their turn and went through the same ceremony. All the bees who proceeded thus clapped their wings in retiring, and ranged themselves in a circle round her, each, as it completed the ceremony, taking a position behind those who had previously offered their respects. A general agitation was soon spread on those sides of the combs corresponding with that of the scene here described. From all quarters the bees crowded to the spot, and each group of fresh arrivals broke their way through the circle, approached the new aspirant to the throne, touched her with their antennæ and probosces, offered her honey, and, in fine, took their rank outside the circle previously formed. The bees forming this sort of court circle clapped their wings from time to time, and fluttered apparently with self-gratification, but without the least sign of disorder or tumult.
"At the end of fifteen or twenty minutes from the commencement of these proceedings the queen, who had hitherto remained stationary, began to move. Far from opposing her progress or hemming her in, as in the cases formerly described, the bees opened the circle on the side to which she directed her steps, followed her, and, ranging themselves on either side of her path, lined the road in the same manner as is done by military bodies in state processions. She soon began to lay drone eggs, for which she sought and found the proper cells in the combs which had been already constructed.
"While these things were passing on the side of the comb where the new queen had been placed, all remained perfectly tranquil on the opposite side. It seemed as though the bees on that side were profoundly ignorant of the arrival of a new queen on the opposite side. They continued to work assiduously at the royal cells, the construction of which had been commenced on that side of the comb, just as if they were ignorant that they had no longer need of them; they tended the grubs in those cells where the eggs had been already hatched, supplying them as usual, from time to time, with royal jelly. But at length the new queen in her progress arriving at that side of the comb, she was received by those bees with the same homage and devotion of which she had been already the object at the other side. They approached her, coaxed her with their antennæ and probosces, offered her honey, formed a court circle round her when she was stationary, and a hedge at either side of her path when she moved, and proved how entirely they acknowledged her sovereignty by discontinuing their labour at the royal cells, which they had commenced before her arrival, and from which they now removed the eggs and grubs, and ate the provisions which they had collected in them.
"From this moment the queen reigned supreme over the hive, and was treated in all respects as if she had ascended the throne in right of inheritance."
THE WORKER-BEE.
The Worker-Bee is an imperfectly developed queen or female. The worker-bees vary in number in a prosperous hive from ten to twenty thousand. They are divided into orders or sections. Some produce wax; others build combs; others feed the young; others ventilate the hive; others, as sentinels, guard the entrance; while the great body traverses gardens and commons, gathering honey for themselves and the bee-master. There are various estimates of the age of the worker-bee. Dr. Bevan thinks the limit of their life is six or eight months. Probably this is the average, from taking into account the accidents of a laborious life, the battles they must wage with enemies, and the wear and tear of ceaseless toil. About the end of August they appear exhausted; their wings become ragged, and the stroke of the sting feebler.
THE DRONE.
The Drone is a male bee, fat, round, and lazy, like an old abbot in mediæval times, who preferred the cellar to his cell. Huber remarks:—
"Naturalists have been extremely embarrassed to account for the number of males in most hives, and which seem only a burden on the community, since they appear to fulfil no function. But we now begin to discern the object of nature in multiplying them to such an extent. As fecundation cannot be accomplished within the hive, and as the queen is obliged to traverse the expanse of the atmosphere, it is requisite that the males should be numerous, that she may have the chance of meeting some one of them. Were only two or three in each hive, there would be little probability of their departure at the same instant with the queen, or that they would meet in their excursions; and most of the females might thus remain sterile."
The queen selects a drone for her husband, who dies invariably at the end of the honeymoon or wedding-trip in the air. But the widowed queen does not marry a second husband. Her whole mind from that day to her death, though surrounded by two thousand suitors, is devoted to the interests and order and government of her realm. During May, and not later than June, the massacre of the drones takes place. They have become at this date encumbrances only. Their mission is ended, and their extermination becomes the duty of the industrious bees. I stated, in my letters to The Times, that I believed the drones had a value additional to that usually assigned to them—viz., that they sustained the temperature of the hive during the chief breeding season. Mr. Cotton—no mean authority—states what substantially confirms all I said:—