THE QUEEN. 49 



2d. Its organs of reproduction are completely developed, 

 so that' it can fulfill the office of a mother. 



3d. Its size, shape, and color are greatly changed; its 

 lower jaws are shorter, its head rounder, and its abdomen 

 without the receptacles for secreting wax; its hind legs have 

 neither brushes nor baskets, and its sting is curved (fig. 23) 

 and one-third longer than that of a worker. 



4ih. Its instuicts are entirely changed. Reared as a 

 worker, it would have thrust out its sting at the least provo- 

 cation; whereas now, it may be pulled limb from limb with- 

 out attempting to sting. As a worker, it would have treated 

 a queen with the gxeatest consideration; but now, if brought 

 in contact with another queen, it seeks to destroy her as a 

 rival. As a worker, it would frequently have left the hive, 

 either for labor or exercise; as a queen, it nevei: leaves it' 

 after impregnation, except to accompany a new swarm. 



5th. The term of its life is remarkably lengthened. As a 

 worker, it would not have lived more than six or seven months ; 

 as a queen, it may live seven or eight times as long. All these 

 wonders rest on the impregnable basis of demonstration, and 

 ■ instead of being witnessed only by a select few, are now, 

 by the use of the movable-comb hive, familiar sights to any 

 bec'keeper. 



109. The process of rearing queens, to meet some special 

 emergency, is even more wonderful than the one already 

 described. If the bees have worker-eggs, or worms not 

 more than three days old, they make one large cell out of 

 three, by nibbling away the partitions of two cells adjoining- 

 a third. Destroying the eggs or worms in two of these cells, 

 they -place before the occupant of the other, the usual food 

 of the young queens; and by enlarging its cell, give it ample 

 space for development. As a security against failure, they 

 usually start a number of queen-cells, for several days in 

 succession. 



It was a German bee-keeper, Schirach, who discovered that 

 a queen can be raised from a worker-egg. ( "The New Natural 

 and Artificial Multiplication of Bees," Bautzen, 1761.) 



