he needs, with honey or other
delicacy which their own exertions, or those of their fellow labourers,
have gathered for her use.

The queen-bee is said to live four or five years, and is generally
succeeded on her throne by one of her own descendants duly brought up
for the purpose; but in the event of her untimely decease, the workers
have the power of raising a sovereign from amongst themselves, and
fitting her for the station she is intended to occupy; this they do
by selecting one of the larvae of the worker-bee of a certain age,
and, enlarging the cell which it is to occupy, supplying it with a
nourishment different from that which they give to the worker and
drone-brood.

A _queen-bee_ takes seventeen days to arrive at maturity, that is to
say, from the egg-state to the fully developed queen, but this period
will vary as a sudden change of temperature will prolong the interval;
and this also applies to the perfect _queen_ herself, who will not
deposit her eggs in the cells, when any severe weather happens at the
period she may be expected to produce the eggs.

The fecundity of the queen-bee is very great, for it is estimated that
during breeding time, unless prevented by the cold weather, she lays
at the rate of from one hundred to two hundred eggs a day, causing
an increase of not less than eighty thousand worker-bees, and drones
included, in a season when circumstances are favourable.

The cells formed for the royal brood are very different from those of
the males or the workers, and are generally suspended from the sides
or edges of the combs; in shape they are very much like a pear, the
thickest end joining the comb, and the small end having the mouth or
entrance to the cell, and hanging downwards, and being almost as large
as a lady's thimble.

The _drones_ or _males_ in a hive are computed at from six hundred
to two thousand, but the numbers are remarkably irregular, and the
proportion is not regulated by the number of bees contained in a hive;
for a small swarm or colony will contain as many, or more sometimes,
than a large one.

The drone may be easily distinguished from the _queen_ or _workers_,
from its greater breadth, having large eyes which meet at the top of the
head, and no sting, and from its making a loud humming whilst flying.

It takes twenty-four days from the time of the laying of the drone _egg_
to its coming forth a perfect insect. Drones are generally hatched about
the end of April