THE HONEY-BEE. 143 



perience may convince us, that bees, like human 

 beings, are often the slaves of circumstances, and 

 that their instinct is sometimes at fault. 



Second Swarms. After the departure of the first 

 swarm with the old Queen at its head, the com- 

 munity is, for a time, without a reigning Queen. 

 There is brood in the royal cells, but none come to 

 maturity ; and it is not till the fifth, sixth, or seventh 

 day in ordinary cases, that the senior of the young 

 princesses is hatched, and takes her place as Queen 

 regnant. Her first step is to hasten to the other royal 

 cells, and endeavour to destroy her rivals. In these 

 attempts, with which she is incessantly occupied for 

 several days, she is strongly opposed by the workers, 

 to whom, so long as she remains a virgin, she is an 

 object of indifference ; and the scene takes place 

 which has been described in page 95. At every 

 repulse by the workers, she utters the shrill mono- 

 tonous sound which is called piping, and which is 

 heard for two or three days previous to the departure 

 of a second swarm ; while the younger Queens in 

 confinement respond, sometimes two or three of them 

 at the same moment, in a voice sounding hoarse from 

 the recesses of their prison. Irritated by such opposi- 

 tion, and annoyed at the sight of so many royal cells 

 in every quarter, the young Queen becomes extremely 

 agitated, and at last rushes, together with the bees to 

 whom she has imparted her agitation, through the out- 

 lets of the hive, and thus forms the second swarm. 



Circumstances sometimes occur to prevent the de- 

 parture of a second swarm. If the young Queen, as 



