The victorious queen now presented a very singular spectacle. She approached a royal cell, and took this moment to utter the sound, and assume that posture, which strikes the bees motionless. For some minutes, we conceived, that taking advantage of the dread exhibited by the workers on guard, she would open it, and destroy the young female; also she prepared to mount the cell; but in doing so she ceased the sound, and quitted that attitude which paralyses the bees. The guardians of the cell instantly took courage; and, by means of tormenting and biting the queen, drove her away.
On the fourteenth, the sixth young queen appeared, and the hive threw a swarm, with all the concomitant disorder before described. The agitation was so considerable, that a sufficient number of bees did not remain to guard the royal cells, and several of the imprisoned queens were thus enabled to make their escape. Three were in the cluster formed by the swarm, and other three remained in the hive. We removed those that had led the colony, to force the bees to return. They entered the hive, resumed their post around the royal cells, and maltreated the queens when approaching.
A duel took place in the night of the fifteenth, in which one queen fell. We found her dead next morning before the hive; but three still remained, as one had been hatched during night. Next morning we saw a duel. Both combatants were extremely agitated, either with the desire of fighting, or the treatment of the bees, when they came near the royal cells. Their agitation quickly communicated to the rest of the bees, and at mid-day they departed impetuously with the two females. This was the fifth swarm that had left the hive between the thirtieth of May and fifteenth of June. On the sixteenth, a sixth swarm cast, which I shall give you no account of, as it shewed nothing new.
Unfortunately we lost this, which was a very strong swarm; the bees flew out of sight, and could never be found. The hive was now very thinly inhabited. Only the few bees that [had] not participated in the general agitation remained, and those that returned from the fields after the swarm had departed. The cells were, therefore, slenderly guarded; the queens escaped from them, and engaged in several combats, until the throne remained with the most successful.
Notwithstanding the victories of this queen, she was treated with great indifference from the sixteenth to the nineteenth, that is, the three days that she preserved her virginity. At length, having gone to seek the males, she returned with all the external signs of fecundation, and was henceforth received with every mark of respect; she laid her first eggs forty-six hours after fecundation.
Behold, Sir, a simple and faithful account of my observations on the formation of swarms. That the narrative might be the more connected, I have avoided interrupting it by the detail of several particular experiments which I made at the same time for elucidating various obscure points of their history. These shall be the subject of future letters. For, although I have said so much, I hope still to interest you.
Pregny, 6. September 1791.
P. S.—In revising this letter, I find I have neglected taking notice of an objection that may embarrass my readers, and which ought to be answered.
After the first five swarms had thrown, I had always returned the bees to the hive: it is not surprising, therefore, that it was continually so sufficiently stocked that each colony was numerous. But things are otherwise in the natural state: the bees composing a swarm do not return to the hive; and it will undoubtedly be asked, What resource enables a common hive to swarm three or four times without being too much weakened?
I cannot lessen the difficulty. I have observed that the agitation, which precedes the swarming, is often so considerable, that most of the bees quit the hive, and in that case we cannot well comprehend how, in three or four days afterwards, it can be in a state to send out another colony equally strong.