EFFECTS OF THE ABSENCE OF THE QUEEN. 63 



generally received opinion : and he therefore qualifies his 

 assertion by saying that it is only in a natural state that the 

 queen leaves the hive, but this is a qualification not very 

 comprehensible, for at what time is the queen in an unna- 

 tural state * ? We, however, hesitate not to affirm, that if 

 the queen do leave the hive, as represented by Huber, her 

 absence would be immediately discovered, and the whole 

 hive thrown into confusion. The queen bee, however, accor- 

 ding to Huber, speaks the French language, independently 

 of being invested with other miraculous powers, and, there- 

 fore, it is probable she maybe gifted with the faculty of in- 

 forming her subjects of the precise intent of her journey ; 

 and, consequently, that no confusion nor interruption takes 

 place in the affairs of the monarchy during her absence. 

 Huber, however, must have been in some degree aware of 

 the existence of this interregnum ; for he very properly 

 places a limit to the time, which the queen occupies in vaga- 

 bondizing in the regions of the air, and according to his 

 experience, it never exceeds half an hour. By what means, 

 however, he arrived at that knowledge, it is most difficult 

 to decide. He must have witnessed the precise moment 

 of her departure, in order to enable him to determine 

 the exact duration of her absence ; but we will venture to 

 affirm, that during the whole of our experience, the cases 

 are very rare in which we succeeded in witnessing the 

 queen leave the hive, even at the departure of a swarm. We 

 have, however, tried the experiment above fifty times, of taking 

 away the queen, for the express purpose of ascertaining the 

 natural disposition of the bees, on the supposed loss of their 

 monarch ; and in every case, not a minute elapsed before the 

 whole community were in confusion. The bees were to be seen 



* According to Mr. Huber, the natural and unnatural state of the queen is 

 made to depend on the following circumstance. If her impregnation has 

 taken place at the proper period, she is then in a natural state ; if it has 

 been retarded, she is then in an unnatural one. 



D 4 



