Natural History of the Honeybee. 11 



lack of brood, are not only difficult to requeen, but also equally difficult to unite with 

 queen-right colonies. This is doubtless in consequence of the peculiar hive odor called 

 forth by the presence of so many egg-layers whose number increases the longer this 

 abnormal condition lasts. According to the investigations of Dohnhoff, almost all the 

 bees finally lay eggs without conducting themselves differently from the usual non-laying 

 bees. 39 A true queen odor does not seem to develop, and I have observed that drone- 

 laying queens are never rendered the " homage" which a normal queen receives. As long 

 as she is unfertilized, she seems to be unnoticed by the inmates of the hive; but as soon 

 as she begins laying eggs she has around her constantly a ring of "courtiers" (see p. 7). 

 Other colonies very frequently may be united without special precautionary measures, but 

 not so with fertile-worker colonies, which can be joined successfully only by the appli- 

 cation of very special precautions. 40 We therefore have here an abnormal hive odor of a 

 peculiar kind/ 1 • r 



In any case it is evident from the foregoing that the hive odor is exceedingly com- 

 plicated — much more so than would appear from Bethe's account; and the idea of a 

 simple chemical substance and a chemical reflect, incapable of modification, is not enough 

 to clear up the proceedings which are involved. 



89 Bienenfceftiung, XIII. Jahrg., No. 20. In passing, I might submit the following : It has been 

 shown experimentally that, as in the circumstances cited!, the workers (normally sterile) take up egg- 

 laying. I shall here mention only one such investigation, and shall not take up the various anthropo- 

 morphic explanations which are usually given. There is a wide-spread view among bee-keepers that the 

 larvae of workers which are located nearest to the queen-cell are fed occasionally on royal jelly by 

 mistake; on account of this exceptional nourishment, it is believed that a better development of the 

 ovaries may take place. This view is held also by v. Siebold and Huber. (The ovaries of workers 

 normally consist of about twenty to thirty egg-tubes, whereas those of the queen contain about four 

 hundred. Parallel with and partly qualified by this view is the incorrect idea that there is onlv one 

 or a few egg-laying bees in a di one-producing colony; but if one realizes that almost all workers in 

 such a colony lay eggs, this view is already weakened. In my opinion we here have to do with, the 

 same reflexes which induce a colony to produce a young queen during the lifetime of an old weakened 

 queen that is laying eggs in insufficient numbers. What "prudence" and "deliberation" on the part 

 of the bees this suggests to the ordinary observer! Again the same reflexes impel a colonv to erect 

 queen-cells if the queen is kept confined for a long time (see p. 14.) It is, I believe, for the greater 

 part an unsatisfied instinct for feeding. In the first case we have the pabulum, which is produced in 

 great quantity, and which is not reaching] its natural destiny, acting to produce a hyper nutrition of the 

 bees, and consequently the stimulation of organs which normally are not stimulated at all. 



40 Dathe, 1. c, p. 161. 



41 I shall not consider further the special abnormal hive odors generated bv disease (dvsenterv, foul 

 brood, etc.), nor through the irritability over the lack of the queen. 



