-bee that's hatched
Is nothing but a drone.

The working bees might all be queens,
If cared for and well-fed
When they are in the larvae state,
But they're half-starved instead,--

While those intended for young queens
Are fattened overmuch,
And nursed and petted every hour,
That they full growth may reach.

For every different kind of egg
That makes the different bees,
A different kind of cell is made,
The queen directing these.

For drones or males, six-sided cells,
Quite neat, and smooth, and nice;
For working-bees a smaller cell,
Uncouth, and rough, and coarse;

{198}

While those for queens are large and free,
And fashioned fine with care,
And lined with softest, silken shreds
So daintily they fare.

The queen-bee lays the worker-eggs,
A dozen days, I ween,
And then the drones as many more,
Then workers, then the queen.

Eggs, two or three, and sometimes four
Are laid in worker-cell;
While drones and queens have each but one,
As oft is proven well.

The bluish eggs so close and warm,
Hatch out with three days passed; {199}
When larvae, white, as little worms,
Are watched and fed and nursed.

These larvae, when some six days old,
Close in their cells are shut,
And there at once begin to weave
A silken web about.

They turn and twist till all around
Themselves 'tis woven quite,
And then they rest for twenty days,--
'Tis such a pretty sight.

The small cocoons of working-bees,
The larger ones of drones,
The large and plump and perfect ones
Of all the coming queens.

{200}

In twenty days they now burst forth,
Equipped from tip to toe,
The working-bees and drones, I mean,
For queens come forth more slow.

The queen cocoons ope from behind,
And I will tell you why,
'Tis that the reigning queen may sting
The others till they die.

If mother queen leads off a swarm,
A young queen they release,
And she may take another swarm,
And leave the hive in peace.

Another queen is then let out,
Perhaps a third and fourth,
As many as can raise a swarm,
To follow them, not loath;

{201}

But when no more can swarm and go,
Because not bees enough,
As I have said, the reigning queen
Stings all the rest to death.

For in each hive and everywhere,
One queen alone will reign,
And an