xxiv INSECT A : HYMENOPTERA 377 



by biting away the cells all around and building up a queen 

 cell round it. They then feed it on the royal jelly ex- 

 clusively, and so cause the more rapid and fuller development 

 characteristic of the queen (cp. note on p. 409). 



The new young queen is not allowed to emerge until 

 the old queen has left the hive with the first swarm of 

 workers, for, if the two queens met, they would fight until 

 one stung the other to death. It is against another queen 

 alone that a queen will use her sting, and no queen will 

 brook a rival in her hive. 



. At this time the greatest excitement prevails 



Swarming. , , . , . , . . , 



m the hive, which is now so overcrowded that 



hundreds of bees can find no entrance and remain in heaps 

 outside. Twenty-four hours before she actually departs, 

 the queen, irritated apparently by the humming noise that 

 the young queens still imprisoned in their cells are beginning 

 to make, rushes wildly about and tries to get at the royal 

 cells to kill her rivals, but is driven off by the workers. She 

 then wanders off, aimlessly visiting every corner of the hive, 

 no longer with a respectful escort of workers, but pushing 

 through them in any direction, sometimes even carrying on 

 her back some of her former attendants. 



A large part of the community ceases to take any part in 

 the ordinary work of the hive. The workers about to emigrate 

 feed unchecked from the honey cells, and so prepare for their 

 coming flight, and all keep up a very frequent and peculiar 

 humming and vibration of the wings. 



Finally, when the sun is bright and high in the sky, the 

 queen will rush from the hive followed by thousands of her 

 workers, and with a loud humming the whole swarm flies to 

 the nearest tree and settles there. This is the point from 

 which we began the story of the hive on page 369. 



The first swarm, which goes off usually in May or June, 

 will always be led by the old queen, unless she is so old and 

 decrepit as to be useless, when she either stays in the hive 

 until she dies naturally, or is put to death by the workers, 

 who may press round her until she is suffocated, but who 

 never use their stings against her. In such a case, the first 

 swarm will be led by a new young queen, who has not yet 

 been for her marriage flight, and this is always so in all 

 subsequent swarms. 



