10 THB PBACTICi.L BEE GUIDE. 



19. The Swarm — An Ecstacy Pouring from the insufficient 



opening they come, in bewildering haste ; a riotous throng, 

 rapturously jubilant, in the very ecstacy of extravagant 

 emotion ; harmless, too, in their design, and in their exaltation 

 so sweetly amiable that he who will may handle them in safety 

 (166). A vast multitude it is, rushing hither and thither, with 

 great noise of humming, until the queen has joined them from 

 the hive and has alighted upon some neighbouring tree. 

 Then they gather round her — in very numbers assuring hex 

 timid heart, unaccustomed to rough exposure and risk of outer 

 dangers — and form a cluster with the faithful mother, so still 

 that any passing traveller may hardly notice them. Now let 

 the watchful owner hive them without delay, and set them to 

 work in a new home, or they will rise and, following their 

 scouts sent out before to find a dwelling, will settle in some 

 distant tree or chimney, or will invade the ruined tower upon 

 the neighbouring hill, and so be lost to useful purpose. (208). 



20. The Virgin Queen. — The now depleted stock, deprived 

 of more than half its numbers by that most boisterous exodus 

 which robbed it also of its queen, presents once more a scene 

 of peaceful labour. As if no mighty revolution had just dis- 

 turbed their order, the bees pursue their avocations, apparently 

 oblivious of the strange events which, but an hour ago, had 

 shaken their kingdom to its foundations. A few days later tht 

 strongest of the young princesses is heard piping in her cell, 

 as if conscious of the high importance of the position that 

 awaits her, and impatient to attain it before her hatching rivals 

 can intervene. The apex of her cell the workers have 

 thinned and smoothed in order to assist her exit. Presently 

 she will cut the capping and, pressing against it, force it open 

 like a round, hinged lid (Fig. 14, A), and step out upon the 

 comb. The nearest honey cell shall have her first attention ; 

 and then she who shall give life to unnumbered millions, 

 will devote her first active hours to massacre. Reaching the 

 other queen cells she will endeavour to tear them open at the 

 sides and to slay her rivals (199). If this be not permitted, 

 she will stay, and watch her opportunity to wage a battle-royal 

 with any young princess who ventures abroad among the 

 combs ; or she will join an after-swarm (214), thus abdicating 

 the position which, for so short a time and anxious, she 

 occupied, and seeking peace in some new home where she may 

 fulfil her task unhindered. But if the hive economy require 

 no further division of the forces, the royal cells will be attacked 

 {Fig. 14, B), and the occupants, astounded at this violent assault 

 upon their privacy, be destroyed. " One queen, one kingdom," 

 is, as in the domain of man, a law of bee life admitting few 

 exceptions. 



