CHAPTER VII.

THE QUEEN-CARE OF THE YOUNG.

THE queen of the bee-hive is a most important personage. The fondness and affection of her subjects for their sovereign is quite wonderful. As she moves about the hive, with a slow and dignified step, she is attended by a guard of workers. They take this duty by turns. Wherever she goes, they clear her path, turning their faces towards her with the greatest politeness. When she rests from her labours, they approach her with respect, they lick her face, they offer her honey, and seem disposed to render her every kind office.

Sometimes a stranger queen attempts to enter a hive, when the workers, who are always on the watch, fall at once upon her, seize her with their jaws by the

legs or wings, and close in all around her, so that it is impossible for her to move farther. Other bees then come to their assistance from the interior of the hive, and encircle her still more closely, all with their heads towards the centre where she remains. If they keep her thus a prisoner long, she will die, from want of air or food, but they never sting her to death. They appear sometimes to encourage the meeting of the stranger with their own queen, and permit them to fight, when the rightful sovereign, rushing upon the other, usually despatches her with one stroke of her sting.

When a queen dies, or when she is removed from the hive, the bees do not at first seem to perceive it, and continue their labours as usual. But in a few hours afterward, they appear disturbed near the spot which the queen had occupied: the movement soon spreads, and many of the bees leave their work, forsake the young, and run here and there in great alarm. As the bees meet each other in the hive, they stop and cross their horns, or antennæ; those who first heard the sad story of their loss seem telling the other bees,

by gently tapping them with these slender but wondrous parts of their bodies.

Thus the tidings circulate till the whole hive is in confusion. The workers run over the combs, and against each other in hurry and disorder, rush to the entrance of the hive, return and spread themselves around, then go out again, and again return. The hum within the hive becomes peculiarly mournful and sad, and thus it continues for several hours; when they begin to be quiet once more, they return to their work, and soon take steps to repair their loss.

If a stranger queen from another hive is given to the bees, in a shorter period than twelve hours after their loss, they will not receive her as their sovereign, but treat her as they would a stranger at any other time. But if twice that number of hours have passed by since they lost their queen, when a new one is introduced, it is singular that they seem then to have forgotten their former monarch so far as to be willing to adopt another.

The moment this stranger is placed upon a comb, the workers who are near first touch her with their

antennæ, and then pass them all over her body, when they retire and give room to others, who salute her in the same manner, and give her honey to eat. All then beat their wings at the same time, and range themselves in a circle round her. A general agitation seems to pass through the hive; many others draw near, touch the stranger, offer her honey, and fall behind again, all continuing to vibrate their wings. At last she moves, and the circle opens to let her pass; then they follow her, surround her with a guard, and soon she appears acknowledged queen in all parts of the hive, and begins to lay her eggs.

The royal bees are never hatched more than one at a time; and, unless they have need of them to lead out a swarm, the workers keep them in confinement in their cells (covering them with lids of wax), to prevent them from killing each other, or being killed by the reigning queen. As they must be fed, they make a small hole in the waxen lid, through which the captive queen thrusts her tongue and receives her food from the nurse-bees. While in this confinement, she utters a low complaining note.

While the workers thus prevent the young queens from leaving their cells more than one at the same time, when they need a sovereign for their hive, or to conduct a swarm, they always set free the eldest first. Probably, they know their age by the noise which these little creatures make while they are covered up in their cells; this noise becoming sharper and louder as they grow older and increase in strength. This sound is supposed to be caused by the vibration of the wings of the bee in her cell.

It is a remarkable fact, that if the death of a queen should occur, no eggs being left in the royal cells, the bees can at once supply her place, if she left workereggs in the cells, or their larvæ less than four days old. To do this, they select one or more from the young worker brood, and make a royal cell or cradle for them, by tearing down the partition between, and throwing three common cells into one; afterwards making it larger and deeper. The chosen grub is then plentifully fed with the royal jelly, or the food of the queens, which is much more sharp and biting in taste than that given to other bees. Thus cradled