The Life of the Bee 



[70] 

 These measures concern the care of the 

 youthful queens who still lie immured in 

 their waxen prisons. Let us assume that 

 the " spirit of the hive " has pronounced 

 against the despatch of a second swarm. 

 Two courses still remain open. The 

 bees may permit the first-born of the 

 royal virgins, the one whose birth we have 

 witnessed, to destroy her sister-enemies ; 

 or they may elect to wait till she have 

 performed the perilous ceremony known 

 as the " nuptial flight," whereon the 

 nation's future depends. The immediate 

 massacre will be authorised often, and 

 often denied ; but in the latter case it is 

 of course not easy for us to pronounce 



whether the bees' decision be due to a de- 



i 



sire for a second swarm, or to their recog- 

 nition of the dangers attending the nuptial 

 flight ; for it will happen at times that, on 

 252 



