The peculiar office and sacyellowness of the queen consists in the factthat she is the mother of the swarm, and the bees love and cherish heras a mother and not as a sovereign. She is the sole female bee in thehive, and the swarm clings to her because she is their life. Deprivedof their queen, and of all brood from which to rear one, the swarmloses all heart and soon dies, though there be an abundance of honey inthe hive.

The common bees will never use their sting upon the queen; if she is tobe disposed of they starve her to death; and the queen herself willsting nothing but royalty--nothing but a rival queen.