228 [Senate 



against the glass. I then let in the swarm and confined the bees in 

 the hive until they had found their sovereign and clustered around 

 her; this done, I withdrew the gate from the entrance of the hive 

 and gave the bees liberty to work. 



This experiment clearly shows that there is no arbitrary govern- 

 ment in a hive of bees, nor domineering power in the queen. Not- 

 withstanding their sovereign was dead, yet the bees commenced mak- 

 ing comb immediately, and continued their labors with perfect regu- 

 larity, as long as she remained in the hive; the queen being attached 

 to the string in its center and the two ends of the string being con- 

 fined at the top of the hive, a dozen inches or more apart, two legs 

 of a perfect right angle was formed, with her highness at the junc- 

 tion of its two legs; at the same time, the common working bees 

 were constantly climbing the string, which kept the lifeless carcass of 

 their venerated sovereign in constant motion. During the whole time 

 of the process, in this part of the experiment, both day and night, 

 there were about a dozen working bees which stood around her ma- 

 jesty, with their heads directly towards her, seemingly in amazement 

 or holding a solemn council; at the same time there were other work- 

 ing bees manifesting unflinching determination to cut off and loosen 

 the string with their teeth, and liberate their mistress from her un- 

 natural confinement. Now, whether it was the intention of the bees 

 to cut off the string to liberate their sovereign, and see whether she 

 was living, or to remove the string which was a nuisance, or drag 

 the dead queen out of the hive, is more than I could determine. 

 But it is certain the bees did by their perseverance, succeed in loosen- 

 ing the string, and the whole string, pin and lifeless carcass of their 

 emaciated and dried up sovereign was found altogether dragged out 

 at the mouth of the hive on the 25th day of July, twenty days after 

 hiving them and the bees stopped work. 



Another fact is here demonstrated, which I think ought to settle 

 the question forever, in relation to the queen's being the mother of 

 all the bees. In this case, no eggs were laid in the cells, no young 

 broods were raised; yet there were drones a plenty as well as workers 

 in the hive, during the whole time of twenty days, and also during 

 their recess from labor, after the dead queen was dragged out of the 

 hive until the season for the general massacre of the drones arrived. 

 I had five full observing glass hives at the same time in full opera- 

 tion, varying in hiving swarms in them only two or three days. One 

 hived July 2d, had eggs laid the first night; eggs were seen in some 

 of the ceils, before they were to exceed the eighth of an inch deep, 

 and chry sales were forming on the ]Oth day after hiving. In other 

 hives chrysales were not observed until the 13th day. But another 

 fact is demonstrated by this experiment, which is corroborated by- 

 other testimony in the case; it is this: no brood comb will ever be 

 made in a hive of bees, unless they dfscover eggs in the cells. Bees 

 usually make comb containing coarse cells in some sheets and fine ones 

 in others, either of which are proper receptacles for storing honey or 

 bread; but it does not appear that they ever make either exclusively 



