Curiosities & wonders > New observations on the natural history of bees

FORMATION OF SWARMS.
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cies; but it is not the less evident that Butler
has heard this peculiar piping of queens,
and that he did not confound it with the con¬
fused humming sometimes heard in hives.
Fourthly, Young queens conducting
swarms from their native hive are still in
a virgin state. They generally depart in
I quest of the males the day after being settled
in their new abode, which is usually the
fifth of their existence as queens ; for two or
three are passed in captivity, one in their
native hive, and a fifth in their new dwell¬
ing. Those queens that come from the worm
of a worker also pass five days in the hive
before going in quest of males. So long as
in a state of virginity, both are treated with
indifference by the bees; but after returning
with the external marks of fecundation, they
are received by their subjects with the most
distinguished respect. However, forty-six
hours elapse after fecundation before they
begin to lay. The old queen, which leads
the first swarm in spring, requires no farther
commerce with the males for the continu¬
ance of her fecundity. Union only once is
sufficient to impregnate all the eggs that she
will lay for at least two years.—Pregny,
%th September 1791.