04 
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 horn's 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, hut 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 
