94 ARTIFICIAL QUEENS. 



stranger had by this time been dispatched, though not 

 in our sight) occupied herself in laying eggs, often 

 within an inch or two of the prisoner, going about her 

 avocations with as much unconcern as if she knew that 

 her subjects would, of themselves, soon and effectually 

 rid her of her puny rival. In two hours from her birth, 

 accordingly, the body of the young queen dropped 

 lifeless from the dense mass of her inexorable guards. 

 Of the other experiment which we are now to de- 

 tail, the sole object was to prove the existence of the 

 power inherent in the Bees of rearing an artificial 

 queen, when deprived by any accident of their original 

 mother. This, indeed, had been proved by the ex- 

 periment above detailed, but only incidentally ; and 

 we were anxious, by an experiment instituted exclu- 

 sively for that object, and conducted with minute and 

 scrupulous accuracy, to put the matter out of all doubt 

 in our own mind at least. In July, our experimental 

 hive was full of bees, brood and honey; the Queen 

 was very fertile, and laying at the rate of more than 

 100 eggs a-day. We opened the hive and carried 

 her off. For about eighteen hours the bees continued 

 their labours as earnestly and contentedly as if she 

 were still with them. At the end of that time, they 

 became aware of their loss, and all was instantly 

 agitation and tumult; the bees hurried backwards 

 and forwards over the comb with a loud noise, rushed 

 in crowds to the door and out of the hive, as if going 

 to swarm ; and, in short, exhibited all the symptoms 

 of bereavement and despair. Next morning, they 

 had laid the foundations of five royal cells, having 

 demolished the three cells contiguous to each of those 



