The Life of the Bee 



[70] 



These measures concern the care of the 

 youthful queens who still lie immured in 

 their waxen prisons. Let us assume that 

 the "spirit of the hive" has pronounced 

 against the despatch of a second swarm. 

 Two courses still remain open. The 

 bees may permit the first-born of the 

 royal virgins, the one whose birth we have 

 witnessed, to destroy her sister-enemies ; 

 or they may elect to wait till she have 

 performed the perilous ceremony known 

 as the " nuptial flight," whereon the 

 nation's future depends. The immediate 

 massacre will be authorised often, and 

 often denied ; but in the latter case it is 

 of course not easy for us to pronounce 

 whether the bees' decision be due to a de- 

 sire for a second swarm, or to their recog- 

 nition of the dangers attending the nuptial 

 flight; for it will happen at times that, on 

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