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

}
ORIGIN OF WAX. 347
This result was already very striking;
hut it particularly excited our astonish¬
ment, that notwithstanding such long pro¬
tracted captivity, the bees did not now
seem to have any desire to go out. That
agitation, that increasing and periodical
1 disorder, and that common impatience mani-
; fested in the first part of the experiment, had
! ceased. Several bees, indeed, attempted
\ to escape in the course of the day, but find-
i ing it impossible, they returned peaceably
j to their young.
", We witnessed these facts repeatedly, and
i always with equal interest. They so deci¬
sively prove the regard of the bees towards
? the larvae which they are entrusted with
rearing, that we shall not seek for any other
explanation of their conduct.
Another fact, no less extraordinary, and
much more difficult to be accounted for, was
exhibited by bees constrained to work in
wax, several times successively, from the
syrup of sugar. Towards the close of the
p experiment they ceased to feed the young,
though in the beginning these had received
the usual attention. They even frequent¬
ly dragged them from their cells, and carried
them out of the hive.