150 The Bee Peopfe. 



Evidently our queen considers one such 

 display of courage quite enough to establish 

 her royal character, for she does not waste 

 time fighting any more queens, but goes 

 to the remaining queen cells, pulls off the 

 caps where the bottled-up queen babies 

 lie, and sticks her dagger right into their 

 poor, soft, helpless little bodies. 



After she has stung all the baby queens 

 she puts up her dagger, very likely deter- 

 mined never to put anything so valuable to 

 such a use again, for you remember her 

 sting is also her ovipositor. 



She does not lose it when she stings a 

 bee, because the parts where the sting en- 

 ters are so soft that she can pull it out 

 again; but you can imagfne what a sad 

 wound the barbs make when pulled out. 



Workers never sting a queen. If a 

 strange queen is put into the hive, or flies in 

 by mistake, and they do not want her, they 

 gather about her so closely as to smother 

 her to death, but they will not sting her. 



