DEVOTION TO QUEEN. 287 



Their devotion to their queen is generally quoted 

 as an admirable trait; yet it is of the most limited 

 character. For instance, I was anxious to change 

 one of my black queens for a Ligurian ; and accord- 

 ingly on October 26 Mr. Hunter was good enough to 

 bring me a Ligurian queen. We removed the old 

 queen, and we placed her with some workers in a box 

 containing some comb. I was obliged to leave home 

 on the following day ; but when I returned on the 30th 

 I found that all the bees had deserted the poor queen, 

 who seemed weak, helpless, and miserable. On the 31st 

 the bees were coming to some honey at one of my 

 windows, and I placed this poor queen close to them. 

 In alighting, several of them even touched her ; yet not 

 one of her subjects took the slightest notice of her. The 

 same queen, when afterwards placed in the hive, im- 

 mediately attracted a number of bees. 



As regards the affection of bees for one another, it 

 is no doubt true that when they have got any honey 

 on them, they are always licked clean by the rest; 

 but I am satisfied that this is for the sake of the 

 honey rather than of the bee. On September 27, for 

 instance, I tried with two bees : one had been drowned, 

 the other was smeared with honey. The latter was 

 soon licked clean ; of the former they took no notice 

 whatever. I have, moreover, repeatedly placed dead 

 bees by honey on which live ones were feeding, but the 

 tatter never took the slightest notice of the corpses. 



Dead bees are indeed usually carried out of the 



