cells, from one of my
best glass hives, and left that composed of males' cells alone: and to
avoid vacuities, I supplied others of the same kind. This was in June,
the season most favourable to bees. I expected that the bees would
quickly have repaired the ravages produced by this operation in their
dwelling; that they would labour at the breaches, and unite the new
combs to the old. But I was very much surprised to see that they did not
begin to work. Expecting they would resume their activity, I continued
observing them several days; however, my hopes were disappointed. Their
homage to the queen was not interrupted indeed; but except in this,
their conduct to the queen was quite different from what it usually is;
they clustered on the combs without exciting any sensible heat. A
thermometer among them rose only to 81 deg., though standing at 77 deg.
in the open air. In a word, they appeared in a state of the greatest
despondency.

The queen herself, though very fertile, and though she must have been
oppressed by her eggs, hesitated long before depositing them in the
large cells; she chose rather to drop them at random than lay in cells
unsuitable. However, on the second day, we found six that had been
deposited there with all regularity. The worms were hatched three days
afterwards, and then we began to study their history. Though the bees
provided them with food, they did not carefully attend to it; yet I was
in hopes they might be reared. I was again disappointed; for next
morning all the worms had disappeared, and their cells were left empty.
Profound silence reigned in the hive; few bees left it, and these
returned without pellets of wax on the limbs; all was cold and
inanimate. To promote a little motion, I thought of supplying the hive
with a comb, composed of large cells, full of male brood of all ages.
The bees, which had twelve days obstinately refused working in wax, did
not unite this comb to their own. However, their industry was awakened
in a way that I had not anticipated. They removed all the brood from
this comb, cleaned out the whole cells, and prepared them for receiving
new eggs. I cannot determine whether they expected the queen to lay, but
it is certain if they did so they were not deceived. From this moment,
she no longer dropped her eggs; but laid such a number in the new comb,
that we found five or six together in the same cell. I then removed all
the combs composed of large cells to substitute