The notion has always very generally prevailed that the queen of the
bees is an absolute ruler, and issues her royal orders to willing
subjects. Hence Napoleon the First sprinkled the symbolic bees over
the imperial mantle that bore the arms of his dynasty; and in the
country of the Pharaohs the bee was used as the emblem of a people
sweetly submissive to the orders of its king. But the fact is, a swarm
of bees is an absolute democracy, and kings and despots can find no
warrant in their example. The power and authority are entirely vested
in the great mass, the workers. They furnish all the brains
and foresight of the colony, and administer its affairs. Their word is
law, and both king and queen must obey. They regulate the swarming,
and give the signal for the swarm to issue from the hive; they select
and make ready the tree in the woods and conduct the queen to it.
The peculiar office and sacredness of the queen consists in the fact
that she is the mother of the swarm, and the bees love and cherish her
as a mother and not as a sovereign.
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