must always leave
the hive in order to be impregnated. It sometimes happens that the wings
of the young female are, from her birth, so imperfect that she either
refuses to sally out, or is unable to return to the hive, if she
ventures abroad. In either case, the old stock must, if left to its own
resources, speedily perish. Queens, in their contests with each other,
are sometimes so much crippled as to unfit them for flight, and
sometimes they are disabled by the rude treatment of the bees, who
insist on driving them away from the royal cells. The great majority,
however, of queens which are lost, perish when they leave the hive in
search of the drones. Their _extra size_ and _slower flight_ make them a
most tempting prey to the birds, ever on the watch in the vicinity of
the hives; and many in this way, perish. Others are destroyed by sudden
gusts of winds, which dash them against some hard object, or blow them
into the water; for queens are by no means, exempt from the misfortunes
common to the humblest of their race. Very frequently, in spite of all
their caution in noticing the position and appearance of their
habitation, before they left it, they make a fatal mistake on their
return, and are imprisoned and destroyed as they attempt to enter the
wrong hive. The precautions which should be used, to prevent such a
calamity, have been already described. If these are neglected, those who
build their hives of uniform size and appearance, will find themselves
losing many more queens than the person who uses the old-fashioned
boxes, hardly any two of which look just alike.

The bees seem to me, to have, as it were, an instinctive perception of
the dangers which await their new queen when she makes her excursion in
search of the drones, and often gather around her, and confine her, as
though they could not bear to have her leave! I have repeatedly noticed
them doing this, although I cannot affirm with positive certainty, why
they do it. They are usually excessively agitated when the queen leaves,
and often exhibit all the appearance of swarming. If the queen of an old
stock is lost in this way, her colony will gradually dwindle away. If
the queen of an after-swarm fails to return, the bees very speedily come
to nothing, if they remain in the hive; as a general rule, however, they
soon leave and attempt to add themselves to other colonies.

It would be highly interesting to ascertain in what way the bees become
informed of