1028 



THE NATURE BOOK 



TRANSFERRING BEES FROM ONE HIVE TO ANOTHER. 



at midday. The Old Queen had swarmed 

 and gone her way ; the guard about the 

 Young Queen's cell was removed, and 

 she was at hberty to move about the 

 hi\e. 



Three days later, after one or two pre- 

 hminary journeys into the air, she had 

 taken nuptial flight and had returned 

 safe and sound to the hive, bearing with 

 her the trophies of brief converse with a 

 drone that had died in the hour of his 

 \'ictory. She rested awhile from her 

 labours, and then for one day she had 

 laboured over the brood cells, guarded 

 and groomed and fed and flattered by the 

 worker bees whf) had congregated round 

 the cell in which she was born. Then 

 the cry of three of her imprisoned sisters, 

 challenging her supremacy, roused her to 



ungovernable wrath, and. this time the 

 workers did not attempt to stand between 

 her and her anger. Sight and smell and 

 hearing all served to direct her to the 

 queens' cells where her imprisoned sisters 

 were still confined in fashion that left the 

 lower part of their bodies exposed. The 

 long sharp sword that was part of her 

 equipment she had used with deadly 

 effect upon the hapless prisoners ; there 

 could be but one Queen. The worker 

 bees dragged out each murdered body 

 from its cell and passed it over to the 

 untlertakers of the hive, who bore their 

 burdens as best they could to the ditch 

 that was the common burial ground. 

 A few of the workers round each queen 

 cell greedily devoured what remained 

 there of the bee milk ; then the cell was 



