mine a hive well
peopled, and governed by a fertile queen, we shall see her lay a
prodigious number of male eggs in the course of May, and the workers
will chuse that moment for constructing several royal cells of the kind
described by M. de Reaumur._ Such is the result of several long
continued observations, among which there has not been the slightest
variation, and I cannot hesitate in announcing it as demonstrated.
However, I should here add the necessary explanation. It is necessary
that the queen, before commencing her _great_ laying of the eggs of
males, be eleven months old; when young she lays only those of workers.
A queen, hatched in spring, will perhaps lay fifty or sixty eggs of
drones in whole, but before beginning her great laying of them, which
should be two thousand in a month, she must have completed her eleventh
month in age. In the course of our experiments, which more or less
disturbed the natural state of things, it often happened that the queen
did not attain this age until October, and immediately began laying male
eggs. The workers, as if induced by some emanation from the eggs, also
adopted this time for building the royal cells. No swarm resulted
thence, it is true, because in autumn all the necessary circumstances
are absolutely wanting, but it is not less evident, that there is a
secret relation between the production of the eggs of males, and the
construction of royal cells.

This laying commonly continues thirty days. The bees on the twentieth or
twenty-first lay the foundation of several royal cells. Sometimes they
build sixteen or twenty; we have even had twenty-seven. When the cells
are three or four lines high, the queen lays those eggs from which her
own species will come, but not the whole in one day. That the hive may
throw several swarms, it is essential that the young females conducting
them be not all produced at the same time. One may affirm, that the
queen anticipates the fact, for she takes care to allow at least the
interval of a day between every egg deposited in the cells. It is proved
by the bees knowing to close the cells the moment the worms are ready to
metamorphose to nymphs. Now, as they close all the royal cells at
different periods, it is evident the included worms are not all of an
equal age.

The queen's belly is very turgid before she begins laying the eggs of
drones; but it sensibly decreases as she advances, and when terminated
is very small. Thus she finds h