efore substitution of a stranger queen for the
native one removed, she is at first treated in the same manner, but the
bees leave her sooner; nor is the surrounding cluster so close; they
gradually disperse; and the queen is at last liberated. She moves
languidly; and sometimes expires in a few minutes. However some queens
have escaped in good health from an imprisonment of seventeen hours; and
ended with reigning in the hives where they had originally been ill
received.

If, before substituting the stranger queen, twenty-four hours elapse,
she will be well received, and reign from the moment of her introduction
into the hive. Here I speak of the good reception given to a queen after
an interregnum of twenty-four hours. But as this word reception is very
indefinite, it is proper to enter into some detail for explaining the
exact sense in which I use it. On the 15. of August, I introduced a
fertile queen, eleven months old, into a glass hive. The bees were
twenty-four hours deprived of their queen, and had already begun the
construction of twelve royal-cells, such as described in the preceding
chapter. Immediately on placing this female stranger on the comb, the
workers near her touched her with their antennae, and, passing their
trunks over every part of her body, they gave her honey. Then these gave
place to others that treated her exactly in the same manner. All
vibrated their wings at once, and ranged themselves in a circle around
their sovereign. Hence resulted a kind of agitation which gradually
communicated to the workers situated on the same surface of the comb,
and induced them to come and reconnoitre, in their turn, what was going
on. They soon arrived; and, having broke through the circle formed by
the first, approached the queen, touched her with the antennae, and gave
her honey. After this little ceremony they retired; and, placing
themselves behind the others, enlarged the circle. There they vibrated
their wings, and buzzed without tumult or disorder, and as if
experiencing some very agreeable sensation. The queen had not yet moved
from the place where I had put her, but in a quarter of an hour she
began to move. The bees, far from opposing her, opened the circle at
that part to which she turned, followed her, and formed a guard around.
She was oppressed with the necessity of laying, and dropped eggs.
Finally, after four hours abode, she began to deposit male eggs in the
cells she met.

While these events