ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. 
201 
duced four or five hundred bees to leave their hive, and 
enter a glass-box, containing a small piece of comb. At 
first, they were in great agitation, but from the moment 
that he presented a new queen the tumult ceased, and the 
stranger was received with all respect. 
“ I do not dispute the truth of this experiment, but 
Reaumur’s bees were too much removed from their natural 
condition to allow him to judge of their instincts and dis- 
positions. He has himself observed, that their industry 
and activity are affected by reducing their numbers too 
much. To render such an experiment truly conclusive, it 
must be made in a populous hive ; and on removing the 
native queen, the stranger must be immediately substituted 
in her place.” 
It would seem, from his use of the word immediately , 
that Huber must have been aware of the fact, that if a 
strange queen is given to a colony, before its agitation is 
calmed down (p. 158), and before royal cells are begun, 
she will usually be well received. If the bees of a colony 
are made to fill themselves with honey, by drumming, 
smoking, or giving them liquid sweets, and often, if they 
are removed to a new stand, they will readily accept of 
any queen oft'ered them, in place of their own. 
Bees, in possession of a fertile queen, are often quite 
reluctant to accept of an unimpregnated one in her stead ; 
indeed, it requires much experience to be able to give a 
strange queen to a colony, and yet be sure of securing for 
her a good reception. In several instances, the workers 
have stung a strange queen to death, while I was holding 
her in my fingers, to be able to remove her if she was 
not kindly welcomed. To prevent accidents, it will be 
well to confine a queen — when given to a strange colony 
— in what the Germans call a “ queen-cage,” which may 
