s. You must excuse the long detail on which I am about to
enter, concerning the history of the royal cells left by the queen in
the hive. Every thing relative to this part of the history of bees has
hitherto been very obscure. A long course of observations, protracted
even during several years, was necessary to remove, in some degree, the
veil that concealed these mysteries. I have been indemnified for the
trouble, indeed, by the pleasure of seeing my experiments reciprocally
confirmed; but, considering the assiduity required in these researches,
they were truly very laborious.

Having established in 1788 and 1789, that queens a year old conducted
the first swarm, and that they left worms or nymphs in the hive to
transform into queens in their turn; I endeavoured, in 1790, to profit
by the goodness of the spring, to study all that related to these young
queens; and I shall now extract the chief experiments from my journal.

On the fourteenth of May, we introduced two portions of bees, from the
straw hives, into a large glass hive very flat; and allowed them only
one queen of the preceding year, and which had already commenced laying
in its native hive. We introduced her on the fifteenth. She was very
fertile. The bees received her well, and she soon began to lay in large
and small cells alternately.

On the twentieth, we saw the formation of twelve royal cells, all on the
edges of the communications, or passages through the combs, and shaped
liked stalactites.

On the twenty-seventh, ten were much but unequally enlarged; but none so
long as when the worms are hatched.

On the twenty-eighth, previous to which the queen had not ceased laying,
her belly was very slender, and she began to exhibit signs of agitation.
Her motion soon became more lively, yet she still continued examining
the cells as when about to lay; sometimes introducing half her belly,
but suddenly withdrawing it, without having laid. At other times she
deposited an egg, which lay in an irregular position, on one side of the
hexagon, and not fixed by an end to the bottom of the cell. The queen
produced no distinct sound in her course, and we heard nothing different
from the ordinary humming of bees. She passed over those in her way;
sometimes when she stopped, the bees meeting her also stopped; and
seemed to consider her. They advanced briskly, struck her with their
antennae, and mounted on her back. She then went on carrying some of the
workers on he