76 bEES. 



The common bees will never use their sting upon 

 the queen ; if she is to be disposed of they starve her 

 to death ; and the queen herself will sting nothing but 

 royalty — nothing but a rival queen. 



The queen, I say, is the mother bee ; it is undoubt- 

 edly complimenting her to call her a queen and in- 

 fest her with regal authority, yet she is a superb 

 sreature, and looks every inch a queen. It is an 

 event to distinguish her amid the mass of bees when 

 the swarm alights ; it awakens a thrill. Before you 

 have seen a queen you wonder if this or that bee, 

 which seems a little larger than its fellows, is not she, 

 but when you once really set eyes upon her you do 

 not doubt for a moment. You know that is the queen 

 That long, elegant, shining, feminine-looking creature 

 «an be none less than royalty. How beautifully her 

 body tapers, how distinguished she looks, how delib- 

 erate her movements ! The bees do not fall down be- 

 fore her, but caress her and touch her person. The 

 drones or males, are large bees too, but coarse, blunt v 

 broad-shouldered, masculine-looking. There is but 

 one fact or incident in the life of the queen that looks 

 imperial and authoritative : Huber relates that when 

 the old queen is restrained in her movements by the 

 workers, and prevented from destroying the young 

 queens in their cells, she assumes a peculiar attitude 

 and utters a note that strikes every bee motionless, 

 and makes every head bow ; while this sound lasts 

 not a bee stirs, but all look abashed and humbled, yet 

 whether the emotion is one of fear, or reverence, or 

 of sympathy with the distress of the queen mother, 

 is hard to determine. The moment it ceases and she 

 advances again toward the royal cells, the bees bite 

 and pull and insult her as before, 



