he twenty-second day,
her ovaries are vitiated in such a manner that she becomes unfit for
laying the eggs of workers, and will produce only those of drones.

In June 1787, being occupied in researches relative to the formation of
swarms, I had occasion, for the first time, to observe a queen that laid
none but the eggs of males. When a hive is ready to swarm, I had before
observed, that the moment of swarming is always preceded by a very
lively agitation, which first affects the queen, is then communicated to
the workers, and excites such a tumult among them, that they abandon
their labours, and rush in disorder to the outlets of the hive. I then
knew very well the cause of the queen's agitation, and it is described
in the history of swarms, but I was ignorant how the delirium
communicated to the workers; and this difficulty interrupted my
researches. I therefore thought of investigating, by direct experiments,
whether at all times, when the queen was greatly agitated, even not in
the time of the hive swarming, her agitation would in like manner be
communicated to the workers. The moment a queen was hatched, I confined
her to the hive by contracting the entrances. When assailed by the
imperious desire of union with the males, I could not doubt that she
would make great exertions to escape, and that the impossibility of it
would produce a kind of delirium. I had the patience to observe this
queen thirty-four days. Every morning about eleven o'clock, when the
weather was fine and the sunshine invited the males to leave their
hives, I saw her impetuously traverse every corner of her habitation,
seeking to escape. Her fruitless efforts threw her into an uncommon
agitation, the symptoms of which I shall elsewhere describe, and all the
common bees were affected by it. As she never was out all this time, she
could not be impregnated. At length, on the thirty-sixth day, I set her
at liberty. She soon took advantage of it; and was not long of returning
with the most evident marks of fecundation.

Satisfied with the particular object of this experiment, I was far from
any hopes that it would lead to the knowledge of another very remarkable
fact; how great was my astonishment, therefore, on finding that this
female, which, as usual, began to lay forty-six hours after copulation,
laid the eggs of drones, but none of workers, and that she continued
ever afterwards to lay those of drones only.

At first, I exhausted myself with co