§ n.] THE QUEEN. 



II 



To keep up these hea\'y productive duties the queen 

 requires to eat in correspoliding proportions, and these 

 she varies, or the bees -i'ary them for her, in the same 

 ratio with the laying itself. She sucks honey from the 

 cells direct, or has it supplied to her by the workers ; 

 and, as an important additional fact, the latter regularly 

 nourish her with pollen already partially digested in 

 their own stomachs. 



In a glass unicomb hive — which we shall hereafter 

 describe — all the movements of the queen bee may be 

 traced. She may be seen thrusting her head into a cell 

 to discover whether it is occupied with an egg or honey, 

 and, if empty, she turns round in a dignified manner and 

 inserts her long body — so long that she is able to deposit 

 the egg at the bottom of the cell ; she then passes on to 

 another, and so continues industriously multiplying her 

 laborious subjects. It not unfrequently happens when 

 the queen is prolific, and if it is an early season, that 

 many eggs are wasted for want of unoccupied cells ; for 

 in that case the queen leaves them exposed at the 

 bottom of the hive, where they are greedily devoured by 

 the bees. 



The queen bee, unlike the great majority of her sub- 

 jects, is a stayer at home. On the second or third day 

 of her princess life she usually sets out on the all- 

 important- concern of her marriage, and when once 

 this is satisfactorily accomplished she never afterwards 

 leaves the hive, except to lead off an emigrating swarm. 



