. The honey bee; its natural history, physiology, and management. ce of a ripenedqueen, the lodge which she inhabited is destroyed,and its place is supplied by a range of commoncells. The site of this range may always betraced, by that part of the comb being thickertlian the rest, and forming a kind of knot; some-times the upper portion of the cell itself remains,like an inverted acorn-cup, suspended by itssliort peduncle. Yet no fond dupes to slavish zeal resignd,ITiey link with industry the loyal ^vn is each vagrant chief? They raze the dome,ITiat bent oppressive oer the fetterd comb
. The honey bee; its natural history, physiology, and management. ce of a ripenedqueen, the lodge which she inhabited is destroyed,and its place is supplied by a range of commoncells. The site of this range may always betraced, by that part of the comb being thickertlian the rest, and forming a kind of knot; some-times the upper portion of the cell itself remains,like an inverted acorn-cup, suspended by itssliort peduncle. Yet no fond dupes to slavish zeal resignd,ITiey link with industry the loyal ^vn is each vagrant chief? They raze the dome,ITiat bent oppressive oer the fetterd comb,And on its knotted base fresh gamers toil secure her well-eaind treasure lays. EvAKS. In this mutilated state only, and not in thebreeding season, could Mr. Hunter have seen thiscradle of royalty; for he describes it as the halfof an oval, too wide and shallow to receive its 352 ARCHITECTURE OF BEES. supposed tenant. The following sketch affords;a representation of the hexagonal cells of a comb,and also the attachment of the royal cradles. L ^m^ I have spoken of the perfect regularity in thecell-work of a honey-comb ;—particular circum-stances, however, induce a departure from thisexactness: for instance, where bees have com-menced a comb with small cell-work, and after-wards wish to attach to it a set of large cells, asin the case of drone-cells being required to beappended to workers-cells. These deviationsfrom the usual regularity renew our admirationof bee-ingenuity, though Reaumur and Bonnethave regarded them as examples of efiect their object by interposing three orfour series of, what may be called, cells of transi- ARCHITECTURE OF BEES. 353 tion, the bottoms or bases of which are composedof two rhombs and two hexagons, instead of threerhombs; the rhombs and hexagons graduallyvarying in form and relative proportion, till therequisite size, namely that of the cells which theyare approaching, has been attained. The followingoutlines wil
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookidho, booksubjectbeeculture, booksubjectbees
