THE PRINCESS ROYAL. 



those over whom she rules. Though offered honey on several 

 occasions during her temporary separation from the swarm in 

 these experiments, she constantly refused it, disdaining a life 

 which was no life to her, deprived of the society of her faithful 

 people.* 



136. After the departure of her majesty there seems to he a sort 

 of interregnum in the hive during the succession of swarms. No 

 new sovereign is for the moment elevated to the throne. A strong 

 guard is established at each of the royal cells, whose duty it is 

 to confine the princesses with the utmost rigour to their respective 

 cells, carefully feeding them, and only liberating them at intervals 

 of some days according to the successive departure of the swarms. 

 They are liberated in the strict order of their seniority, the 

 nymph proceeding from the first royal egg, or the princess royal, 

 being invariably the first set free. 



137. When she issues forth, her first impulse, like that of all 

 queens, is to fall upon the cells containing her younger sisters to 

 destroy them. This, which in other states of the colony is permitted 

 by the workers, is now strenuously and effectually opposed by them. 

 When she approaches the neighbourhood of the royal cells, the 

 guard in whose charge these are placed, pinch, worry, and hunt 

 her until they compel her to depart, but never attempt to assail 

 her with their stings or seriously injure or disable her. 



Now, as there are usually a great number of these royal cells in 

 different parts of the hive, our princess finds it a difficult matter 

 to obtain any corner where she can remain unmolested. Inces- 

 santly impelled by her instinct to attack the cells of her sisters, 

 and as incessantly repulsed from them by the surrounding guard, 

 her life is rendered miserable. She is in a constant state ot 

 agitation, running from one group of workers to another, until at 

 length the agitation is shared by a certain portion of the workers 

 themselves. When this occurs, a crowd of bees are seen rushing 

 towards the portals of the city. They issue from it accompanied 

 by their young and virgin queen. It is the second swarm of the 

 season, and differs from the first only in the age and condition of 

 its sovereign. 



138. After this emigration the workers, who have remained in 

 possession of the hive liberate another of the princesses, the 

 second in seniority, whom they treat exactly in the same manner 

 as the former. The same succession of repulses by the guards of 

 the remaining royal cells takes place, attended by like consequences, 

 this second princess leading forth in the same manner the third 

 swarm, and so on. 



139. This spectacle is repeated three or four times in the season 



* Bevau, p. 148. 69 



