ormed regular
circles around her. However, there was a little agitation in the
evening, but confined to the surface of the comb where we had put the
queen, and which she had not quitted. All was perfectly quiet on the
other side of this comb.

In the morning of the seventh, the bees had destroyed the twelve royal
cells, but, independent of that, order continued prevalent in the hive;
the queen laid the eggs of males in the large cells, and those of
workers in the small ones, respectively.

Towards the twelfth, we found the bees occupied in constructing
twenty-two royal cells, of the same species described by M. de Reaumur,
that is the bases not in the plane of the comb, but appended
perpendicularly by pedicles or stalks of different length, like
stalactites, on the edge of the passage made by the bees through their
combs. They bore considerable resemblance to the cup of an acorn, and
the longest were only about two lines and a half in depth from the
bottom to the orifice.

On the thirteenth, the queen seemed already more slender than when
introduced into the hive; however she still laid some eggs, both in
common cells and those of males. We also surprised her this day laying
in a royal cell: she first dislodged the worker there employed, by
pushing it away with her head, and then supported herself by the
adjoining cells while depositing the egg.

On the fifteenth, the queen was still more slender: the bees continued
their attention to the royal cells, which were all unequally advanced;
some to three or four lines in height, while others were already an inch
long; which proved that the queen had not laid in the whole at the same
time.

At the moment when least expected, the hive swarmed on the nineteenth;
we were warned of it by the noise in the air; and hastened to collect
and put the bees into a hive purposely prepared. Though we had
overlooked the facts attending the departure of the swarm, the object of
this experiment was fulfilled; for, on examination of all the bees, we
were convinced they had been conducted by the old queen; by that we
introduced on the sixth of the month, and which had been deprived of one
of the antennae. Observe, there was no other queen in this colony. In the
hive she had left, we found seven royal cells close at the top, but open
at the side, and quite empty. Eleven more were sealed; and some others
newly begun; no queen remained in the hive.

The new swarm next became the object of