QUEEI^'S. 



361 



QUEENS. 



looked much as if she had been stung, but 

 we have also rescued cells and put them 

 into a wire-cage nursery after they had 

 been torn open, and had them mature into 

 nice queens. As these immature queens 

 are very soft, the workers will soon pick 

 them out of the cell, piece by piece, and we 

 have sometimes placed them in the nur- 

 sery and had them mature, minus a wing 

 or leg, or whatever portion the mischievous 

 worker had pulled away. MVe judge from 

 many such observations that the queen gen- 

 erally tears a hole in the cell, or bites into it 

 in such a way that the workers take hold of 

 it, and tear it all down, much in the way 

 they do any mutilated or broken piece of 

 comb. When queen-cells have been cut out, 

 all the larvae that are in any way in j ured are at 

 once thrown out, and none but the perfect 

 cells preserved. Bees never fuss with crip- 

 ples, or try to nurse up a bee that is 

 wounded or maimed. They have just the 

 same feeling for their fellows that a locomo- 

 tive might be expected to have for a man 

 whom it liad run over. They battle against 

 any thing that threatens the extinction of 

 the colony, it is true; but we have never been 

 able to discover any signs of their caring for 

 one of their number, or even having com- 

 passion on their helpless brood when it is 

 wounded and suffering. If a hole is made in 

 a queen-cell by the queen or by anybody, 

 they are almost sure to tear it down and 

 throw it away. When a queen hatches the 

 remaining cells are very soon torn down, as 

 a general thing, but there are many excep- 

 tions. Where two queens hatch out at about 

 the same time they also generally attempt 

 to kill each other; but we have never heard 

 of both being killed. This probably results 

 from the fact that they can sting their rivals 

 only in one certain way ; and the one that, 

 by strength or accident, gets the lucky posi- 

 tion in the combat is si;re to come off vic- 

 tor. This explains how a very inferior vir- 

 gin queen, that has entered the hive by ac- 

 cident, may sometimes supplant an old lay- 

 ing queen. Two queens, when thus thrown 

 together, generally fight very soon, but this 

 does not always happen. Several cases are on 

 record where they have lived in peace and 

 harmony for months, even when hatched at j 

 about the same time, and it is quite common 

 to find a yoiing queen helping her mother 

 in the egg-laying duties of the hive, espe- 

 cially when the mother is two or three years 

 old. If the season is good, and the hive pop- 

 ulous, they may divide up their forces, and 

 we have After-swarming, which see. 



Sometimes the queen will pay no attention 

 to the remaining cells, but will let them 

 hatch out, and then their "little differences" 

 are adjusted afterward, either by swarming 

 or by the usual "hand-to-hand" conflict "un- 

 til death." We once looked for a queen, and, 

 not finding her, concluded she was lost. 

 Another cell was inserted, and in due time 

 hatched out. We were much surprised to 

 find this new queen laying when only one 

 day old; but a little further looking revealed 

 two, both on the same comb. Many losses 

 in introducing queens have resulted from 

 two queens being in the hive, the owner be- 

 ing sure his hive was queenless— because he 

 had removed one. 



QUEENS' VOICES. 



Queens have two kinds of voices, or calls, 

 either one of which they may emit on cer- 

 tain occasions. It is almost impossible, 

 on the printed page, to describe these 

 sounds. One of them is a sort of z-e-e-p, 

 z-e-e-p, zeep, zeep. Some call it piping, 

 others teeting. Whatever it is, it consists 

 of a prolonged tone, or, as we might say, a 

 long zeep followed by several much shorter, 

 each tone shorter than the preceding one. 

 This piping is made when the queen is out 

 of the cell, either virgin or laying, but 

 usually by a young one. The older ones are 

 generally too dignified, or too something, 

 to give forth any such loud squealing ; but 

 they will squeal, and lustily, too, sometimes, 

 when the bees ball them and grab them by 

 the legs and wings. They shout just as 

 we would when surrounded by enemies on 

 every side, and in mere fright give a yell of 

 alarm. 



The other note that queen-1)ees are known 

 to give forth is what is called quahklng, for 

 that more nearly describes the actual sound 

 than any other combination of letters we 

 can put together. If we mistake not, it is 

 emitted only by a young queen in the cell, 

 before she is hatched, and is made in an- 

 swer to the piping or zeep, zeep, of one of 

 the virgins that has already hatched, and 

 is trying perhaps to proclaim aloud her sov- 

 ereignty. The quahk will be heard, then, 

 only when there are queen-cells in the hive. 

 At other times the note will be a series of 

 long ze-ep, z-e-e-p, zeep, followed by short- 

 er tones, as explained. 



While a young queen is being introduced 

 she frequently utters a note of alarm, a 

 zeep, zeep, etc. The bees are almost always 

 stirred by these notes of the queen, and 

 they will often turn and run after her 

 and cling around lier like a ball, when they 



