THE QUEEN'S FLIGHT 



1027 



cry of the OUl Queen bee, her mother. 

 " I have kept my sword for you and ior 

 all your sisters," cried the Mother Queen ; 

 " there shall be but one mother in this 

 hive." Then there was a sound ot 

 scuffling and remonstrance, a shrill cry of 

 rage repeated over and over again ; 

 while a sense of excitement and turmoil 

 seemed to pass almost physically over the 

 hive, communicating itself to the worker 

 bees as they came in laden with pollen 

 and nectar and to the drones as they 

 lumbered clumsily home from the fields, 

 careless of everythmg save abundance of 

 sweets and long hours of rest. Then the 

 outcry died away, the Old Queen had been 

 appeased. 



Of food the Young Queen found plenty, 

 but her hberty was yet to come, for as soon 



as one of her guards went off duty another 

 came to take his place ; and, at times, 

 the Old Queen could be heard making a 

 fresh effort to break thrcjugh the living 

 wall round her and W(jrk a savage will 

 upon her helpless children. From three 

 other parts of the hive the challenge of 

 the queens was answered. The workers 

 had made four queen cells, taking eggs 

 to them from the worker cells. In 

 each a bee, equipped to become a mother 

 of more than 250,000 children, was caUing 

 for liberty and battle. Towards noon 

 on the following day, after long hours of 

 extraordinary turmoil, followed by a few 

 minutes of complete silence, there was 

 a rush as of many thousands leaving the 

 hive. It was altogether different from 

 the noise made by the few hundred drones 



THIS FRAME HAS FOUL WOOD. 

 Notice the irregular cappinfts and the Queen on honey-cells. 



