In these larger cells are placed the eggs. When the first egg is hatched, it is a princess bee.
Why Bees “Swarm”
The old queen, knowing the princess will be the new queen, “swarms” with the bees who wish to follow her to a new hive.
The new queen, as soon as hatched, goes to the other royal cells and stings the other little princesses (who might try to be queen if they hatched) to death, and commences to be mother-queen of the Bee City.
How Bees Spend the Winter
The bees spend the winter in a kind of sleep. They cluster together to keep warm.
When the early Spring days come, and some of the bees begin to bring in pollen and nectar, the queen begins to lay eggs.
These eggs will be hatched out into worker bees to carry on the work of the hive, and the bees that lived over winter will live only long enough to care for them until they can carry on the work of the hive.
At length the Bee sighted her hive. “We are home,” she said to Miss Gardener, “and I will explain to the guard bees that it is all right for you to enter, as you are one of us.”