353 
ing in the cell cap and makes its way out. The first care of this young 
bee is to seek food from an open honey cell, and in the course of two or 
more days it has acquired sufficient strength and consistence to enable 
it to begin its labors as a nurse bee, doing for the developing larve 
what was so recently done for it. After a week’s time it takes short 
flights, noting well the location of its hive, so as to be able to return 
to it. 
Queens are bred only when a colony is about to swarm, or when an 
aged or failing queen needs replacing, or where an accident has deprived 
the hive of her services. If she be removed from the hive during the 
working season, the bees are thrown into great excitement, shown by 
the change of the contented hum into one of alarm, by the hurried 
movements from the combs to the entrance, and by the discontented 
flight to and from the hive. If all the brood combs are removed the 
bees become panic-stricken and give utterance to a peculiar mournful 
note or distressed wail, quite different from the normal cheerful hum. 
In time, however, this excitement subsides, as they become satisfied of 
their loss. If the queen be returned, or the comb containing young 
larvie be introduced into the hive, the whole attitude changes. The 
moment the first bee touches with its antenne the queen, or acomb, or 
any point over which she had walked recently, it sets up aloud and 
cheerful hum, and the occupants of the hive, even those unable to see 
the comb, immediately catch the sound and crowd toward the point 
whence it first proceeded, repeating the jubilant note. If only a comb 
of larvie be given them, they still recognize it as a deliverance from the 
threatened extinction of the colony. Ina few hours one of the cells 
over a larva two or three days old will be enlarged by the partial 
destruction of the walls of the adjoining cells. This enlarged cell is 
built outward and downward, and the larva is fed on the so-called royal 
jelly or bee-milk. The supply of this food is always plentiful, and when 
a well-developed queen has issued it 1s not uncommon to find a quan- 
tity of the food in a partially dried, jelly-like mass in the bottom of the 
cell. When, preparatory to swarming, young queens are being reared, 
the workers have to guard them, even in the cell, from the jealous fury 
of the reigning queen, and the instinctive rivalry and conflict between 
queens, accompanied by a peculiar shrill battle ery, first noticed by the 
elder Huber, are quite suggestive of similar conflicts between rival 
queens In human monarchies. 
ECONOMY OF HIVE—SOCIAL ORGANIZATION—DIVISION OF LABOR, 
Each bee, as already stated, labors for the good of the common- 
wealth of which it isa member. Of them it might well be said: 
Salus rei public suprema lex. 
It is the welfare of the colony which directs the actions of all, and 
not the will of the queen. Indeed, it would seem that the latter per- 
forms her important function—that of supplying the hive with eggs— 
