THE SWARM 53 



as to be held incapable of further service, they will ruthlessly 

 expel her from the hive. And yet it cannot be said that 

 they are altogether incapable of a kind of personal attachment 

 towards their mother. They will recognise her from among 

 all. Even when she is old, crippled, and wretched, the 

 sentinels at the door will never allow another queen to enter 

 the hive, though she be young and fruitful. It is true that 

 this is one of the fundamental principles of their polity, and 

 never relaxed except at times of abundant honey, in favour 

 of some foreign worker who shall be well laden with food. 



When the queen has become completely sterile, the bees 

 will rear a certain number of royal princesses to fill her place. 

 But what becomes of the old sovereign ? As to this we have 

 no precise knowledge ; but it has happened, at times, that 

 apiarists have found a magnificent queen, in the flower of her 

 age, on the central comb of the hive ; and in some obscure 

 corner, right at the back, the gaunt, decrepit " old mistress," as 

 they call her in Normandy. In such cases it would seem that 

 the bees have to exercise the greatest care to protect her from 

 the hatred of the vigorous rival who longs for her death, for 

 queen hates queen so fiercely that two who might happen 

 to be under the same roof would immediately fly at each 

 other. It would be pleasant to believe that the bees are 

 thus providing their ancient sovereign with a humble shelter 

 in a remote corner of the city, where she may end her days 

 in peace. Here again we touch one of the thousand enigmas 

 of the waxen city ; and it is once more proved to us that 

 the habits and policy of the bees are by no means narrow, 

 or rigidly predetermined ; and that their actions have motives 

 far more complex than we are inclined to suppose. 



