friend, he was treated as a trespasser; nor was he ever able after this period to perform any operation with them, or to approach within their precincts, without exciting their anger. Here then it is pretty evident that some change had taken place in the Counsellor's secretions in consequence of the fever, which though not noticeable by his friends, was offensive to the olfactory nerves of the Bees."[1]
Functions of the inmates of a hive.—A hive consists of the Queen, or mother-bee, the Workers varying in numbers, from 10,000, to 20,000 or 30,000, and the Males or Drones, from 700 to double that number.
Functions of the Queen.—(see Pl. I. Fig. 1.)—The Queen is the parent of the hive; and her sole province and occupation consist in laying the eggs, from which originate those prodigious multitudes that people a hive, and emigrate from it in the course of one summer. In the height of the season, her fertility is truly astonishing, as she lays not fewer than 200 eggs per day, and even more when the season is particularly warm and genial, and flowers are abundant; and this laying continues, though at a gradually diminishing rate, till the approach of cold weather in October. So early as February, she resumes her labours in the same department, and supplies the great blank made in the population by the numerous casualties that take place between the end of summer and commencement of spring. Her great laying of the eggs of workers begins generally
