THE QUEEN. 51 



occupant, whether worm, nymph, or queen. Therefore, as soon 

 as the victorious queen had left this second cell, the workers 

 enlarged the opening and drew out the nymph that it contained. 

 The young queen rushed to a third cell; but she was unable to 

 open it. She worked languidly and seemed tired of her first 

 efforts."— (Huber.) 



113. Huber did not allow this experiment to go on any 

 fui-ther, as he wished to use the remainder of the queen-cells. 

 Had he left these cells untouched, the bees would have fin- 

 ished the work of destruction. 



114. AVe haA'e noticed repeatedly, that the queen-cells 

 are always destroyed a few hours after the birth of the queen, 

 imless the colony has determined to swarm. lu the latter 

 case, the workers prevent the newly-hatched queen from ap- 

 proaching- the queen-cells, till she is old enough and strong 

 enough to leave with the swarm. (143.) 



115. Like some human beings who cauuot have their own 

 waj', she is highly offended when thus repulsed, and utters, 

 in a quick succession of notes, a shrill, angry sound, not 

 milike the rapid utterance of the words, "peep, peep." If 

 held in the closed hand, she will make a similar noise. To 

 this angry note, one or more of the imhatehed queens, im- 

 prisoned and nursed in their cells by the bees, answer by 

 the sound "kooa, kooa"; the difference in their voices being 

 due to the confinement of the latter in the cell. 



These sounds, so entirely unlike the usual steady hum of 

 the bees, are almost mfallible indications that a sv.'arm will 

 soon issue. They are occasionally so loud as to be heard .at 

 some distance from the hive. 



The reader will understand that all these facts relate to a 

 hive of bees, from which the old queen has been previously 

 and suddenly removed, either by the Apiarist for some pur- 

 pose, or by swarming, or ac-eident. 



116. Sometimes two queens hatch at the same time. We 

 give below a translation of Huber's account in such event: 



"On the 15th of May, 1790, two queens emerged from their 

 cells, at about the same time, in one of our observing hives. 



