214 THE FAIRY-LAND OF SCIENCE. 
Leaving them to go their way, we will now return 
to the old hive. Here the liberated princess is reign- 
ing in all her glory ; the worker-bees crowd round 
her, watch over her, and feed her as though they 
could not do enough to show her honour. But still 
she is not happy. She is restless, and runs about 
as if looking for an enemy, and she tries to get at the 
remaining royal cells where the other young princesses 
are still shut in. But the workers will not let her 
touch them, and at last she stands still and begins to 
beat the air with her wings and to tremble all over, 
moving more and more quickly, till she makes quite a 
loud, piping noise. 
Hark ! What is that note answering her ? It is a 
low, hoarse sound, and it comes from the cell of the 
next eldest princess. Now we see why the young 
queen has been so restless. She knows her sister will 
soon come out, and the louder and stronger the sound 
becomes within the cell, the sooner she knows the 
fight will have to begin. And so she makes up her 
mind to follow her mother's example and to lead off 
a second swarm. But she cannot always stop to 
choose a fine day, for her sister is growing very strong 
and may come out of her cell before she is off. And 
so the second, or after-swarm, gets ready and goes 
away. And this explains why princesses' eggs are 
laid a few days apart, for if they were laid all on the 
same day, there would be no time for one princess to 
go off with a swarm before the other came out of her 
cell. Sometimes, when the workers are not watchful 
enough, two queens do meet, and then they fight till 
one is killed ; or sometimes they both go off with the 
