48 PHYSIOLOGY OF THE HONEY-BEE. 
has acquired some strength, travels over the combs, looking 
for a rival, either hatched or unhatched. 
112. ‘Hardly had ten minutes elapsed after the young queen 
emerged from her cell, when she began to look for sealed 
queen-cells. She rushed furiously upon the first that she met, 
and, by dint of hard work, made a small opening in the end. We 
saw her drawing, with her mandibles, the silk of the cocoon, 
which covered the inside. But, probably, she did not succeed 
according to her wishes, for she left the lower end of the cell, 
and went to work on the upper end, where she finally made a 
wider opening. As soon as this was sufficiently large, she turned 
about, to push her abdomen into it. She made several motions, 
in different directions, till she succeeded in striking her rival 
with the deadly sting. Then she left the cell; and the bees, 
which had remained, so far, perfectly passive, began to enlarge 
the gap which she had made, and drew out the corpse of a queen 
just out of her nymphal shell. During this time, the victorious 
young queen rushed to another queen-cell, and again made a 
large opening, but she did not introduce her abdomen into it; 
this second cell containing only a royal-pupa not yet formed. 
There is some probability that, at this stage of development, 
the nymphs of queens inspire less anger to their rivals; but they 
do not escape their doom; for, whenever a queen-cell has been 
prematurely opened, the bees throw out its occupant, whether 
worm, nymph, or queen. Therefore, as soon as the victorious 
queen had left this second cell, the workers enlarged the opening 
and drew out the nymph that it contained. The young queen 
rushed to a third cell; but she was unable to open it. She worked 
languidly and seemed tired of her first efforts.’’—( Huber.) 
113. Huber did not allow this experiment to go on any 
further, as he wished to use the remainder of the queen-cells. 
Had he left these cells untouched, the bees would have fin- 
ished the work of destruction. 
114. We have noticed repeatedly, that the queen-cells 
are always destroyed a few hours after the birth of the 
queen, unless the colony has determined to swarm. In the 
latter case, the workers prevent the newly-hatched queen 
from approaching the queen-cells, till she is old enough and 
strong enough to leave with the swarm. (443.) 
