350 



THE BEE. 



as though the interior was too narrow for the thronging 

 population. They appear moving about as in a state of 

 indecision, till finally on some pleasant morning, a queen 

 Bee followed by seven or eight thousand subjects, emerges 

 from the hive, and after fluttering about for a few mo- 

 ments, as though bidding their home a lingering adieu, 

 or waiting for any stragglers who may be disposed to 

 join their party, they take a high and rapid flight in a 

 direct line in search of a new abode. It has generally 

 been supposed that the young swarm, headed by the 

 youthful queen, compose this colony. But it is now 

 pretty well established that it is a promiscuous assem- 

 blage of old and young bees, headed by the old queen, 

 and that she leaves the sceptre of the hive to her youthful 

 daughter, who at the moment of her birth becomes her 

 enemy and rival. 



There is a most deadly animosity subsisting between 

 the female bees- Sometimes there are as many as twenty 

 royal cells in a hive, in each of which the queen deposits 

 an egg, which does not differ in appearance from those 

 placed in the other cells. In size it is a little larger. 

 The instinctive animosity of the queen mother does not 

 however manifest itself against her female progeny, till 

 the worm is transformed into a nymph. Still the working 

 bees appear to be conscious of the danger to which their 

 young females are exposed from maternal malice, and a 

 strong body guard is continually stationed at each royal 

 cell. The sight of these cells appears to give the queen 

 mother the excitement of delirium. She rushes with 

 infuriated haste to the yet unopened cradles of her chil- 

 dren, her submissive subjects retiring before her, and 

 unchecked she barbarously murders her offspring. But 

 her impetuosity is too great to be long continued. Hav- 

 ing torn away from two or three of the cells the thick 

 coating of wax, which protects the infant queens, she 

 becomes exhausted, and is unable to proceed any farther, 

 in her inhuman employment. The excitement, however, 

 which she has manifested, is communicated to others 

 and soon spreads through the hive. All seem to be in up- 

 roar and confusion, and the old queen driven away by jea- 

 lousy or fear, and followed by a large portion of her sub- 



