r back. None gave her honey, but she voluntarily took it
from the cells in her way. The bees no longer inclosed and formed
regular circles around her. The first, aroused by her motions, followed
her running in the same manner, and in their passage excited those still
tranquil on the combs. The way the queen had traversed was evident after
she left it, by the agitation created, which was never afterwards
quelled: she had soon visited every part of the hive, and occasioned a
general agitation; if some places still remained tranquil, the bees in
agitation arrived, and communicated their motion. The queen no longer
deposited her eggs in cells; she let them fall fortuitously: nor did the
bees any longer watch over the young; they ran about in every different
direction; even those returning from the fields, before the agitation
came to its height, no sooner entered the hive than they participated in
these tumultuous motions. They neglected to free themselves of the waxen
pellets on their limbs, and ran blindly about. At last the whole rushed
precipitately towards the outlets of the hive, and the queen along with
them.

As it was of much consequence to see the formation of new swarms in this
hive, and, for that reason, as I wished it to continue very populous, I
removed the queen, at the moment she came out, that the bees might not
fly too far, and that they might return. In fact, after losing their
female, they did return to the hive. To increase the population still
more, I added another swarm, which had come from a straw hive on the
same morning, and removed its queen also.

All these facts were certain, and appeared susceptible of no error.
Notwithstanding this, I was particularly earnest to learn whether old
queens always followed the same course; which induced me, on the
twenty-ninth, to replace, in the glass hive, the queen a year old, which
had hitherto been the subject of my experiments, and had just began to
lay the eggs of males. On the same day, we found one of the royal cells
left by the preceding queen larger than the rest; and, from its length,
supposed the included worm two days old: the egg had, therefore, been
laid on the twenty-fourth by that queen, and the worm was hatched on the
twenty-seventh. On the thirtieth, the queen laid a great deal in the
large and small cells alternately. Now, and the two following days, the
bees enlarged several royal cells, but unequally, which proved that they
included larvae