INSECTA—BEE. 853 
wax after the combs are made; but they are observed, even in old hives, to 
return in great numbers loaded with such matter, which is deposited in 
particular cells, and is known by the name of bee-bread. 
When a queen is removed from a hive, the bees do not immediately per- 
ceive it; they continue their labors, “watch over their young, and perform 
all their ordinary occupations. But, in a few hours, agitation ensues; all 
appears a scene of tumult in the hive: asingular humming is heard; the bees 
desert their young, and rush over the surface of the combs with a delirious 
mmpetuosity.” They have now evidently discovered that their sovereign is 
gone; and the rapidity with which the bad news spreads through the hive, 
to the opposite side of the combs, is very remarkable. On replacing the 
queen in the hive, tranquillity is almost instantly restored. The bees, it is 
worthy of notice, recognise the individual person of their own queen. If 
another be palmed upon them, they seize and surround her, so that she is either 
suffocated or perishes by hunger; for it is very remarkable, that the workers 
are never known to attack a queen bee with their stings. If, however, more 
than eighteen hours have elapsed before the stranger queen be introduced, 
she has some chance to escape ; the bees at first seize and confine her; but 
less rigidly ; and they soon begin to disperse, and at length leave her te 
reign over a hive in which she was at first treated as a prisoner. If twenty: 
four hours have elapsed, the stranger will be well received from the first, 
and at once admitted to the sovereignty of the hive. Inshort, it appears that 
the bees, when deprived of their queen, are thrown into great agitation; that 
they wait about twenty hours, apparently in hopes of her return; but that, 
after this interregnum, the agitation ceases; and they set about supplying 
their loss by beginning to construct royal cells. It is when they are in this 
temper, and not sooner, that a stranger queen will be graciously received ; 
and upon her being presented to them, the royal cells, in whatever state of 
forwardness they may happen to be, are instantly abandoned, and the larve 
destroyed. Reaumur must, therefore, have mistaken the result of his own 
experiments, when he asserts, that a stranger queen is instantly well receiv- 
ed, though presented at the moment when the other is withdrawn. He had 
seen the bees crowding round her at the entrance of the hive, and laying 
their antenne over her; and this he seems to have taken for caressing. The 
structure of the hives he employed prevented him from seeing further ; had 
he used the leaf-hive, or one of similar construction, he would have perceiv- 
ea that the apparent caresses of the guards were only the prelude of actual 
imprisonment. 
After the season of swarming, it is well known, a general massacre of the 
drones is commenced Several authors assert that the workers do not sting 
the drones to death, but merely harass them till they be banished from the 
hive and perish. M. Huber contrived a glass table, on which he placed 
severa' hives, and he was thus able to see distinctly what passed in the bot- 
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