32 HOW TO KEEP BEES 



understood; as nearly as I am able to spell it, it is 

 "tse-ep, tse-e-e-ep, tse-e-ep, tsep, tsp, tsp, ts," in a 

 sort of diminuendo. She makes the noise when she 

 discovers another queen cell; if there is within this 

 cell a full-fledged queen, she pipes back, but it 

 sounds quite differently and the note is more like 

 *'quock, quock." This piping of queens is especially 

 evident before an after-swarm is to issue. The 

 queen will also pipe when the bees gather about her 

 and try to ball her, which is often the fate of a new 

 queen introduced into a colony not ready to receive 

 her. In this case the note is one of righteous anger 

 at the indignity to her royal person. She makes 

 this piping with some vocal instrument, not well 

 understood. Her wings vibrate tremulously while 

 she is piping, but she can pipe quite as vociferously 

 after her wings have been entirely cut off. 



After she has made good her title to empire, the 

 queen thinks about marriage; some warm day she 

 will run out of the hive to see how the world looks, 

 and especially to determine beyond doubt upon just 

 what point of the universe her own hive is situated. 

 The first flight of the queen bee is very pretty to see. 

 She makes many graceful circles about, and plays in 

 the sunshine as if she were thoroughly enjoying 

 herself. When she finally leaves the hive to find a 

 prince, she makes several little detours, always 

 coming back so that she can commit to memory, 

 beyond peradventure, the home place, and then off 

 she goes in the sunshine to find her lover. Unfor- 

 tunately she is not discriminating in the matter of 



