THE FUSSY QUEEN BEE
In a sheltered corner of the farmyard, where the hedge kept off the coldwinds and the trees shaded from hot summer sunshine, there were manyhives of Bees. One could not say much for the Drones, but the otherswere the busiest of all the farmyard people, and they had so much to dothat they did not often stop to visit with their neighbors.
In each hive, or home, there were many thousand Bees, and each had hisown work. First of all, there was the Queen. You might think that beinga Queen meant playing all the time, but that is not so, for to be areally good Queen, even in a Beehive, one must know a great deal andkeep at work all the time. The Queen Bee is the mother of all the BeeBabies, and she spends her days in laying eggs. She is so very preciousand important a person that the first duty of the rest is to take careof her.
The Drones are the stoutest and finest-looking of all the Bees, but theyare lazy, very, very lazy. There are never many of them in a hive, andlike most lazy people, they spend much of their time in telling theothers how to work. They do not make wax or store honey, and as theWorker Bees do not wish them to eat what has been put away for winter,they do not live very long.
Most of the Bees are Workers. They are smaller than either the QueenMother or the Drones, and they gather all the honey, make all the wax,build the comb, and feed the babies. They keep the hive clean, and whenthe weather is very warm, some of them fan the air with their wings tocool it. They guard the doorway of the hive, too, and turn away therobbers who sometimes come to steal their honey.
In these busy homes, nobody can live long just for himself. Everybodyhelps somebody else, and that makes life pleasant. The Queen Motheroften lays as many as two thousand eggs in a day. Most of these areWorker eggs, and are laid in the small cells of the brood comb, which isthe nursery of the hive. A few are Drone eggs and are laid in largecells. She never lays any Queen eggs, for she does not want more Queensgrowing up. It is a law among the Bees that there can be only one grownQueen living in each home.
The Workers, however, know that something might happen to their oldQueen Mother, so, after she has gone away, they sometimes go into a cellwhere she has laid a Worker egg, and take down the waxen walls betweenit and the ones on either side to make a very large royal cell. Theybite away the wax with their strong jaws and press the rough edges intoshape with their feet. When this egg hatches, they do not feed the baby,or Larva, with tasteless bread made of flower-dust, honey, and water, asthey would if they intended it to grow up a Worker or a Drone. Instead,they make what is called royal jelly, which is quite sour, and tuck thisall around the Larva, who now looks like a little white worm.
The royal jelly makes her grow fast, and in five days she is so large asto nearly fill the cell. Then she stops eating, spins a cocoon, and liesin it for about two and a half days more. When she comes out of this,she is called a Pupa. Sixteen days after the laying of the egg, theyoung Queen is ready to come out of her cell. It takes twenty-one daysfor a Worker to become fully grown and twenty-five for a Drone.
In the hive by the cedar tree, the Queen Mother was growing restlessand fussy. She knew that the Workers were raising some young Queens, andshe tried to get to the royal cells. She knew that if she could only dothat, the young Queens would never live to come out. The Workers knewthis, too, and whenever she came near there, they made her go away.
The Queen Larvae and Pupae were of different ages, and one of them was nowready to leave her cell. They could hear her crying to be let out, butthey knew that if she and the Queen Mother should meet now, one of themwould die. So instead of letting her out, they built a thick wall of waxover the door and left only an opening through which they could feedher. When she was hungry she ran her tongue out and they put honey onit.
She wondered why the Workers did not let her out, when she wanted somuch to be free. She did not yet know that Queen Mothers do not getalong well with young Queens.
The Workers talked it over by themselves. One of them was verytender-hearted. "It does seem too bad," said she, "to keep the pooryoung Queen shut up in her cell. I don't see how you can stand it tohear her piping so pitifully all the time. I am sure she must bebeautiful. I never saw a finer tongue than the one she runs out forhoney."
"Humph!" said a sensible old Worker, who had seen many Queens hatchedand many swarms fly away, "you'd be a good deal more sorry if we did lether out now. It would not do at all."
The tender-hearted Worker did not answer this, but she talked it overwith the Drones. "I declare," said she, wiping her eyes with herforefeet, "I can hardly gather a mouthful of honey for thinking of her."
"Suppose you hang yourself up and make wax then," said one Drone. "Itis a rather sunshiny day, but you ought to be doing something, and ifyou cannot gather honey you might do that." This was just like a Drone.He never gathered honey or made wax, yet he could not bear to see aWorker lose any time.
The Worker did not hang herself up and make wax, however. She never didthat except on cloudy days, and she was one of those Bees who seem tothink that nothing will come out right unless they stop working to seeabout it. There was plenty waiting to be done, but she was too sad andanxious to do it. She might have known that since her friends were onlyminding the law, it was right to keep the new Queen in her cell.
The Queen Mother was restless and fussy. She could not think of herwork, and half the time she did not know whether she was laying a Droneegg or a Worker egg. In spite of that, she did not make any mistake, orput one into the wrong kind of cell. "I cannot stay here with a youngQueen," said she. "I will not stay here. I will take my friends with meand fly away."
Whenever she met a Worker, she struck her feelers on those of herfriend, and then this friend knew exactly how she felt about it. In thisway the news was passed around, and soon many of the Workers were asrestless as their Queen Mother. They were so excited over it at timesthat the air of the hive grew very hot. After a while they would becomequiet and gather honey once more. They whispered often to each other."Do you know where we are going?" one said.
"Sh!" was the answer. "The guides are looking for a good place now."
"I wish the Queen Mother knew where we are going," said the first.
"How could she?" replied the second. "You know very well that she hasnot left the hive since she began to lay eggs. Here she comes now."
"Oh dear!" exclaimed the Queen Mother. "I can never stand this. Icertainly cannot. To think I am not allowed to rule in my own hive! TheWorkers who are guarding the royal cells drive me away whenever I gonear them. I will not stay any longer."
"Then," said a Drone, as though he had thought of it for the first time,"why don't you go away?"
"I shall," said she. "Will you go with me?"
"No," said the Drone. "I hate moving and furnishing a new house.Besides, somebody must stay here to take care of the Workers and theyoung Queen."
The Queen Mother walked away. "When we were both young," she said toherself, "he would have gone anywhere with me."
And the Drone said to himself, "Now, isn't that just like a QueenMother! She has known all the time that there would be young Queenscoming on, and that she would have to leave, yet here she is, making thebiggest kind of fuss about it. She ought to remember that it is thelaw."
Indeed she should have remembered that it was the law, for everything isdone by law in the hive, and no one person should find fault. The lawlooks after them all, and will not let any one have more than hisrightful share.
That same afternoon there was a sudden quiet in their home. The Workerswho had been outside returned and visited with the rest. While they werewaiting, a few who were to be their guides came to the door of the hive,struck their wings together, and gave the signal for starting. Then allwho were going with the Queen Mother hurried out of the door and flewwith her in circles overhead. "Good-bye!" they called. "Raise all theyoung Queens you wish. We shall never come back. We are going far, faraway, and we shall not tell you where. It is a lovely place, a verylovely place."
"Let them go," said the Drones who stayed behind. "Now, isn't it time tolet out the young Queen?"
"Not yet," answered a Worker, who stood near the door. "Not one feelershall she put outside her cell until that swarm is out of sight."
The tender-hearted Worker came up wiping her eyes. "Oh, that poor QueenMother!" said she. "I am so sorry for her. I positively cannot gatherhoney to-day, I feel so badly about her going."
"Better keep on working," said her friend. "It's the best thing in theworld for that sad feeling. Besides, you should try to keep strong."
"Oh, I will try to eat something from the comb," was the answer, "but Idon't feel like working."
"Zzzt!" said the other Worker. "I think if you can eat, you can huntyour food outside, and not take honey we have laid up for winter or foodthat will be needed for the children."
The Drones chuckled. It was all right for them to be lazy, they thought,but they never could bear to see a Worker waste time. "Ah," cried one ofthem suddenly, "what is the new swarm doing now?"
The words were hardly out of his mouth when the Queen Mother crawledinto the hive again. "Such dreadful luck!" said she. "A cloud passedover the sun just as we were alighting on a tree to rest."
"I wouldn't have come back for that," said a Drone.
"No," said she, in her airiest way, "I dare say you wouldn't, but Iwould. I dare not go to a new home after a cloud has passed over thesun. I think it is a sign of bad luck. I should never expect a singleegg to hatch if I went on. We shall try it again to-morrow."
All the others came back with her, and the hive was once more crowdedand hot. "Oh dear!" said the tender-hearted Worker, "isn't it too bad tothink they couldn't go?"
The next morning they started again and were quite as excited over it asbefore. The Queen Mother had fussed and fidgeted all the time, althoughshe had laid nine hundred and seventy-three eggs while waiting, and thatin spite of interruptions. "Being busy keeps me from thinking," saidshe, "and I must do something." This time the Queen Mother lighted on anapple-tree branch, and the others clung to her until all who had leftthe hive were in a great mass on the branch,--a mass as large as a smallcabbage. They meant to rest a little while and then fly away to the newhome chosen by their guides.
While they were hanging here, the farmer came under the tree, carryinga long pole with a wire basket fastened to the upper end. He shook theclustered Bees gently into it, and then changed them into an empty hivethat stood beside their old home.
"Now," said the Workers who had stayed in the old hive, "we will let outthe new Queen, for the Queen Mother will never return."
It did not take long to bite away the waxen wall and let her out. Thenthey gathered around and caressed her, and touched their feelers to herand waited upon her, and explained why they could not let her outsooner. She was still a soft gray color, like all young Bees when theyfirst come from the cell, but this soon changed to the black worn by herpeople.
The Workers flew in and out, and brought news from the hive next door.They could not go there, for the law does not allow a Bee who lives inone home to visit in another, but they met their old friends in the airor when they were sipping honey. They found that the Queen Mother hadquite given up the idea of living elsewhere and was as busy as ever. Thefarmer had put a piece of comb into the new hive so that she could beginhousekeeping at once.
The new Queen was petted and kept at home until she was strong and usedto moving about. That was not long. Then she said she wanted to see theworld outside. "We will go with you," said the Drones, who were alwaysglad of an excuse for flying away in pleasant weather. They said therewas so much noise and hurrying around in the hive that they could neverget any real rest there during the daytime.
So the young Queen flew far away and saw the beautiful world for thefirst time. Such a blue sky! Such green grass! Such fine trees coveredwith sweet-smelling blossoms! She loved it all as soon as she saw it."Ah," she cried, "what a wonderful thing it is to live and see all this!I am so glad that I was hatched. But now I must hurry home, for there isso much to be done."
She was a fine young Queen, and the Bees were all proud of her. They lether do anything she wished as long as she kept away from the royalcells. She soon began to work as the old Queen Mother had done, and wasvery happy in her own way. She would have liked to open the royal cellsand prevent more Queens from hatching, and when they told her it was thelaw which made them keep her away, she still wanted to bite into them.
"That poor young Queen Mother!" sighed the tender-hearted Worker. "I amso sorry for her when she is kept away from the royal cells. This is asad, sad world!" But this isn't a sad world by any means. It is abeautiful, sunshiny, happy world, and neither Queen Bees nor anybodyelse should think it hard if they cannot do every single thing theywish. The law looks after great and small, and there is no use inpouting because we cannot do one certain thing, when there is any amountof delightful work and play awaiting us. And the young Queen Mother knewthis.
Among the Farmyard People Page 8