174 ANTS, BEES AND WASPS 



part of its body in a kind of shroud or wrapping. On completing 

 its metamorphosis a young princess is not allowed to leave its 

 cell, but is kept close prisoner by the workers, who pass food into 

 the cell through a small hole in the waxen cap. 



Only one queen can live in a hive at a time ; and when, from 

 the shrill piping of the imprisoned princess, the old queen knows 

 she has a rival in the field, she grows greatly excited, and endeavours 

 to reach the cell so that she may tear it open and kill the intruder. 

 But this the workers will not allow ; they bar her way, and beat 

 her with scant ceremony should she resist their will. If the stock 

 is a large and prosperous one, and the reigning queen-mother 

 still in her prime, she will be allowed to go off with a swarm and 

 start a new colony ; but should the queen be old, and almost past 

 egg-laying, the workers will ruthlessly put her to death. An old, 

 useless queen is never allowed to live, but the workers never use 

 their stings upon her ; they crowd round her, pressing closer and 

 closer until the breath is squeezed out of her body, and she is 

 practically hugged to death. 



When the swarm has departed, the young queen is liberated ; 

 and should there be any other royal cells in the hive, she at once 

 tries to destroy them ; but the workers mount guard over the 

 remaining royal cells, and push and hustle the angry young queen 

 away from their vicinity. She is treated by the whole colony as 

 a creature of no importance ; no one attends to her or offers her 

 food ; she is obliged to help herself from the open pollen tubs 

 and honey cells in common with the workers of the hive. But 

 this state of affairs does not continue for long ; in a few days' 

 time the young queen leaves the hive on her nuptial flight, and 

 on her return she is received by the bees with every mark of 

 delight and affection. She will not, however, settle down to her 

 work while there are rivals in the hive, and for this once the workers 

 allow her to have her way ; they stand aside while the newly 

 installed queen tears open the royal cells, and with a thrust of 

 her long, curved ovipositor stabs every inmate to death. A 

 queen bee may live until she is four or five years old, but she is 

 rarely allowed to do so by the ruling workers. After two years 

 her power of egg-laying usually begins to decrease, and as soon 

 as this becomes evident she is put to death. 



The queen bee in appearance is very much like a worker, but 



