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 stmg is curved (fig. 23) 

 and one-third longer than that of a worker. 



4th. Its uistmcts 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 greatest 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 never leaves it 

 after impregnation, except to accompany a new swarm. 



Sth. 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 

 bee-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, Sehirach, who discovered that 

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

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



