BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
These first experiments prevented the supposition of a particular instinct in royal worms. They proved that, if they spin incomplete cocoons, it is because they are compelled to do so by the form of their cells. However, I desired to have a still more direct proof. I placed worms of this same kind in cylindrical glass cells, or portions of glass tubes resembling common cells, and I had the pleasure of seeing these worms spin complete cocoons, as the worms of workers do.
Lastly, I placed common worms in very wide cells, and they left their cocoon open. It is thus demonstrated that the royal worms and the worker worms have exactly the same instinet, the same industry, or in other words, when placed in similar circumstances, they conduct themselves in the same manner. I will add here that the royal worms, artificially lodged in cells of such a shape that they are able to spin complete cocoon, undergo all their metamorphoses equally well. The obligation which nature has imposed upon them, to leave their cocoon open, is not necessary to their development, it has no other object than that of exposing them to the danger of death under the strokes of their natural enemy: a very new and truly singular observation.
In order to complete the history of the worms of bees, I must relate the experiments that I have made on the influence which the size of the cells has upon them. It is to you, Sir, that I am indebted, for the suggestion of the experiments needed upon this interesting subject.
As we often find in the hives males that are smaller than usual, and also sometimes queens of a smaller size than they should be, it was desirable to determine in general to what degree the cells in which bees have passed the first period of their existence has influence upon their size. With this view, you advised me to remove from a hive all the combs composed of common cells, leaving only those composed of large cells. It was evident that if the eggs of common bees, which the queen laid in those cells, would produce workers of a larger size, we should conclude that the size of the cells had a decided influence on that of the bees.
The first time I made this experiment it was unsuccessful because moths having invaded the hive discouraged my bees: but I repeated it and the result was remarkable.
I removed from one of my finest glazed hives all the combs composed of common cells, leaving only those composed of drone cells, and in order to have no vacant room in it, I added more combs of the same kind. It was in June, the season most favorable to bees. I expected those bees to quickly repair the damage produced in their hive by this operation, that they would work upon the breaches made and fasten the new comb to the old; but I was much surprised to see that they did not begin work. I observed them for several days, in the hope that they would resume activity. But this hope was disappointed. Indeed they did not fail in their respect to their queen, but except in this their behavior was quite different from what it is usually: they remained clustered on the combs without exciting any sensible heat; a thermometer placed among them rose only to 22* though it was at 20* in the open air.13 In a word they appeared to be in the greatest discouragement.
The queen herself, though very fertile, and though she must have been oppressed with the need of laying, hesitated a long time, before depositing any eggs in the large cells; she dropped them, rather than lay them in unsuitable cells. However, on the second day we found six which had been deposited regularly. Three days after, the worms had hatched and we followed their history. The bees commenced to feed them, they did not appear very eager at this work, yet I was in hopes that they would continue to care for them. I was mistaken, for on the following day all the worms disappeared and the cells were empty. Dismal silence reigned in the hive, only a few bees took wing, those that returned had no pellets on their legs: all was cold and inanimate. To promote a little motion, I supplied the hive with a comb of small cells, full of male brood of all ages. The bees, which had obstnately refused to work in wax for 12 days, did not unite this comb to their own; however their industry was awakened in a manner that I had not foreseen; they removed all the brood from this comb, cleaned out the cells and made them ready to receive new eggs; I do not know whether they expected their queen to lay in them, but if they did, they were not dis-appointed: from this moment the female no longer dropped her eggs; she came to this new comb and laid such a number of eggs that we found 5 or 6 together in several of the cells. I then removed all the combs of large cells, to put small cells in their place and this operation restored their complete activity.
The circumstances of this experiment seem worthy of attention; they prove first that nature has not left to the queen the choice of the eggs which she is to lay; it is ordained that at certain times of the year the female should lay male eggs; she is not permitted to invert this order. You have seen, Sir, in the third letter, that another fact led me to the same consequence, and as this was very important, I was delighted to see it confirmed by a new observation. I repeat therefore that the eggs are not indiscriminately mixed in the ovaries of the queen, but arranged so that, at a certain season, she can lay only a certain kind. So, it would be vain, at the time of the year when the queen should lay the eggs of workers, to attempt forcing her to lay drone eggs by filling her hive with large cells; for by the experiment just described we see that she prefers to drop her worker eggs haphazard, rather than place them in unsuitable cells, and that she will not lay male eggs. I do not yield to the pleasure of granting this queen discernment or foresight, for I perceive a sort of inconsistency in her conduct. If she refused to lay the eggs of workers in large cells because nature taught her that their size is not proportioned to the size or the need of the common worms; why did she not learn also that she should not lay several eggs in the same cell? It appeared much easier to rear a single worker worm in one large cell than several of the same kind in a small cell. The supposed discernment of the queen is not very much enlightened. The most prominent feature of industry here appears in the common bees of this hive. When I gave them a comb of small cells filled with male brood, their activity was awakened; but instead of caring for this brood, as they would have done in other circumstances, they destroyed these worms and nymphs, and cleaned out the cells, so that the queen, oppressed with the need of laying, be enabled to deposit her eggs. Could we allow them either reason or sentiment, this would be an interesting proof of their affection for her.
## EIGHTH LETTER.
The experiment here detailed at length, not having fulfilled my object in determining the influence of the size of the cells upon that of the worms, I devised another which was more successful.
I selected a comb of large cells containing eggs and worms of males. I caused all of these worms to be removed from their pap, and Burnens substituted worms one day old, taken from worker cells, then gave this comb to be cared for to bees that had a queen. The bees did not abandon these substituted worms; they sealed the cells with an almost flat capping very different from that which they place on the cells of males, which shows that, although these worms were in large cells, they were well aware that they were not drone worms. This comb remained in the hive for eight days from the time the cells were sealed. I then had it removed to examine the nymphs which it contained. They were worker nymphs, in a more or less advanced state; but as to size and shape they were exactly similar to those that make their growth in the smaller cells. I concluded that the worker worms do not acquire greater size in large than in small cells. Although I made this experiment only once, it appears decisive. Nature which has intended the workers to grow in cells of a certain dimension, undoubtedly ordained that they should receive in them the full development of their organs: a greater space would be useless to them; and they do not reach greater size in spacious cells than in those that are intended for them. If there were cells, in the combs, of a smaller size than common cells, and if the queen should lay worker eggs in them, it is probable that the bees reared in them would attain a less size than the ordinary workers, because they would be cramped in those cells, but it does not ensue that a large cell should give them an extraordinary size.
The effect produced on the size of drones by the diameter of the cells which their worms inhabit may serve as a rule to judge of what must happen to worker worms in similar circumstances. The large male cells have all the space required for the full extension of their organs. Thus, even if we reared drones in still larger cells, they would grow no larger than ordinary drones. We have the proof of this in those that are produced by queens whose foundation has been retarded. You will remember, Sir, that these queens sometimes lay drone eggs in royal cells: the drones reared in such cells, much more spacious than those provided for them by nature, are no larger than ordinary males. Thus it is correct to say that whatever be the size of the cells in which bees are reared, they will not acquire a larger size than is proper to their kind; but if they grow in smaller cells than those intended for them, as their growth will then be checked they will not attain the usual size.
I had proof of this in the following experiment: I had a comb composed of drone cells and another of worker cells, both oecupled with drone worms. Burnens took worms from the small cells and placed them in the large cells on the bed of jelly which had been prepared for them: in return he introduced into the small cells worms which had hatched in the larger ones, and gave both to the care of a hive whose queens laid only male eggs. The bees were not disquieted by this displacement, they took equal care of the worms and when they reached the time of metamorphosis, they gave to both kinds of cells the convex covering which they usually place upon the cells of males.
### 64 New Observations Upon Bees.
Eight days afterwards we removed these combs and found, as I had expected, large drone nymphs in the large cells and small males in the small ones. You pointed out to me, Sir, another experiment, which I made with great care, but which met with an unexpected obstacle. To appreciate the degree of Influence of royal food upon the development of worms, you desired me to remove a little of this pap with the end of a pencil and to feed it to a larva of workers in a common cell. Twice I attempted this operation without success, and I am certain that it can never succeed, for the following reason:
When bees have a queen and we put in their charge worms in cells in which we have placed royal jelly, they promptly remove those worms and greedily eat the pap upon which they were placed. When, on the contrary, they are deprived of queen, they change the common cells containing these worms into royal cells of the largest size; then the worms which were to be only common bees are infallibly converted into queens.
But there is another situation in which we can judge of the influence of the royal jelly, administered to worms in common cells. I described these details to you at length in my letter upon the existence of fertile workers. You have not forgotten, Sir, that these workers owe the development of their sexual organs to particles of royal jelly with which they were fed while in the worm shape. For want of new observations more directly upon this subject, I refer you to the experiments described in my 5th letter.
NINTH LETTER.
_On the Formation of Swarms._
Pregny, September 6, 1791.
Sir, I can add a few facts to the information which Mr. de Reaumur has given us on the formation of swarms.
In his history of bees, this celebrated naturalist says, that it is always or almost always a young queen that heads a swarm; but he did not assert the fact positively; he had some doubts and here are his own words:
"Is it very certain, as we have supposed until now, in coincidence with all who have treated of bees, that the colony is uniformly headed by a young mother? May not the old mother become disgusted with her habitation? Or may she not be impelled, by peculiar circumstances to abandon all her possessions to the young female? It would be in my power to solve this question otherwise than by probabilities, had not mishaps destroyed the bees of hives whose queens I had marked with a red spot on the corslet."
These expressions seem to indicate that Mr. de Reaumur suspected that the old queens sometimes head the swarms. From the following details, you will see, Sir, that his conjectures were fully justified.
The same hive may cast several swarms, in the course of spring and the fine season. The old queen is always at the head of the first colony that goes; the others are conducted by the young queens. Such is the fact which
## VIII LETTER.
I shall prove in this letter; it is accompanied with remarkable circumstances, which I shall not neglect.
But before beginning this account, I must repeat that which I have stated many times, that one must use leaf or flat hives to see what belongs to the industry and instinct of the bees. When we allow them to build several parallel combs, we can no longer observe what passes constantly between them; or if we wish to see what they have built we must dislodge them by water or smoke, a violent proceeding which leaves nothing in natural conditions, disturbs the instinct of the bees, and exposes the observer to mistaking simple accidents for permanent laws.
I now proceed to the experiments proving that an old queen always conducts the first swarm.
I had a glass hive composed of 3 parallel combs, placed in frames closed like the leaves of a book: the hive was fairly well peopled, and abundantly supplied with honey and comb, with brood of all ages. I removed its queen, on the 5th of May 1788: on the 6th I transferred to it all the bees of another hive, with a fertile queen at least a year old. They entered readily and without fight and were generally well received. The old inhabitants of the hive, which, since the removal of their queen had begun 12 royal cells, also gave the fertile queen a good reception; they offered honey to her, and made regular circles around her; however there was a little agitation in the evening, but confined to the surface of the comb upon which we had put the queen and which she had not quitted. All remained perfectly quiet on the other side.
On the morning of the 7th, the bees had destroyed their 12 royal cells. Order continued to reign in the hive; the queen laid alternately male eggs in the large cells and worker eggs in the small ones.
Towards the 12th we found our bees busy building 22 royal cells of the kind described by Mr. de Reaumur, that is, the bases not in the plane of the comb, but suspended by pedicles of different length, like stalactites, on the edge of the passages made by the bees through the combs. They resembled the cup of an acorn, and the longest were not to exceed two and a half lines (about 1/5 inch) from the bottom to the orifice.
On the 13th, the queen's belly appeared to us to be more slender than when she was introduced in the hive: but she still laid some eggs, both in worker and male cells. We also surprised her this day, at the moment when she was laying in one of the royal cells: she first dislodged the worker employed there, by pushing her away with her head; then after having examined the bottom, she introduced her belly into it, by supporting herself with her anterior legs on one of the adjoining cells.
On the 15th, the queen appeared still more slender; the bees continued to care for the royal cells, which were unequally advanced: some to 3 or 4 lines, while others were already an inch in length; thus proving that the queen had not laid in all those cells at the same date.
On the 19th, when we least expected it, the hive swarmed; we were warned of it only by the noise which it made in the air: we hastened to collect it and placed it in a prepared hive; though we had overlooked the circumstances of its departure, the particular object of this experiment was fulfilled, for on examination of all the bees of the swarm, we became con
### New observations upon bees.
vinced that it had been led by the old queen, the one which we had introduced on the 6th of the month, which we had made easy to recognize by the deprivation of one of her antennae. Observe that there was no other queen in this colony. In the hive which she had left we found 7 royal cells, closed on the end but open on the side and entirely empty. Eleven more were sealed and some others newly begun; but there was no queen left in the hive.
The new swarm next became the object of our attention: we observed it during the rest of the year, during the winter and the following spring, and in April, we had the satisfaction to see another swarm issue, with this same queen that had conducted one in the previous month of May, of which I have just spoken.
You see, Sir, that this experiment is positive. We used an old queen, placed her in the hive at the time of her laying of drone eggs: we saw the bees accept her, and at that time begin the building of royal cells. The queen laid in one of those cells under our eyes, and lastly left this hive with a swarm.
We repeated this observation several times with equal success. Thus it appears incontestable that it is always the old queen that leads the first swarm out of the hive; but she leaves it only after having deposited eggs in the royal cells from which young queens will hatch after her departure. The bees prepare these cells only when they see the queen laying male eggs, and this is attended by a remarkable fact, namely, that after termination of this laying, her belly is notably diminished; she can fly more easily, whereas, previous to the laying of male eggs, her belly is so heavy that she can hardly drag it along. Therefore it is necessary that she should lay them, to be able to undertake a journey which sometimes may be very long.
But this single condition is not sufficient; it is also necessary that the bees be very numerous in the hive; they should be superabundant, and it may be said that they are aware of it, for if the hive is scantily peopled, they will not build any royal cells at the time of the laying of male eggs, which is the only period when the old queen is able to conduct a colony. We acquired the proof of this in an experiment made on a very large scale.
On the 3d of May 1788, we divided in two each of 18 hives whose queens were about a year old; so each portion of those hives had but half of the bees that were there before the division: 18 of those half hives were thus without queens; but in the space of 10 or 15 days, the bees made up this loss and secured new females: the other 18 had very fertile queens. They soon began to lay male eggs, but the bees, seeing themselves in small number, did not construct any royal cells and none of the hives swarmed. Therefore, if the hive containing the old queen is not very populous, she remains in it till the subsequent spring; and if the population is then sufficient, the bees will construct royal cells, as soon as the queen begins her laying of male eggs; she will deposit eggs in them and will issue at the head of a colony, before the birth of any young queens.
Such is, Sir, an abridged abstract of my information upon swarms, led by old queens; excuse the lengthy details upon which I am about to enter, on the history of royal cells, which remain in the hive after the departure of the queen. Everything relative to this part of the history of bees was
## Ninth Letter.
hitherto very obscure; a long course of observations, protracted during several years, was necessary to partly remove the veil concealing these mysteries; it is true that I was indemnified by the pleasure of seeing my experiences reciprocally confirmed; but owing to the assiduity which they required, these researches were very laborious.
Having established, in 1788 and 1789, that queens a year old conducted the first swarms and that they left in the hive worms or nymphs which were to transform into queens in their turn, I undertook, in 1790, to profit by the goodness of spring, to observe all that relates to these young queens; I shall now extract the principal experiments from my Journals.
On the 14th of May, we introduced bees from 2 straw hives into a very thin, large glass hive, giving them only one queen born in the preceding year, and which had already commenced laying drone eggs in her native hive.
We introduced her on the 15th; she was very prolific; she was well received and quickly commenced to lay in small and large cells alternately.
On the 20th, we found the foundations of 16 royal cells: they were all on the edges of the passages which the bees establish in the thickness of the combs in order to pass from one side to the other; they were shaped like stalactites.
On the 27th, 10 of these cells were much enlarged, though unequal, and none had the length which bees give them when the worms are hatched.
On the 28th, previous to which the queen had not ceased laying, her belly was much reduced, but she began to exhibit agitation. Her motions soon became more lively; yet she still examined the cells as when she wants to.lay in them: sometimes introducing into one the half of her belly, then withdrawing it brusquely. At other times, introducing it no deeper, she would lay an egg, placed irregularly; not fastened by one of its points to the bottom of the cell, but laid upon the center of one of the panes of the hexagon. The queen produced no distinct sound in her course, and we heard nothing different from the ordinary humming of the bees; she would pass over the body of those that were in her way; sometimes if she stopped the bees that met her stopped also, as if to consider her; they would advance brusquely toward her, strike her with their heads and climb on her back; she would then start, carrying several thus upon her; none gave her any honey, but she took some herself out of the open cells on her way; they no longer hedged around her or surround her with regular circles. The first bees that were aroused by her motions followed her running, and excited, in passing, those that were still quiet upon the combs. The path followed by the queen was noticeable, after her passage, by the agitation created, which was no longer quelled. She had soon visited every part of the hive and caused general excitement; if any places still remained tranquil, those that were agitated would arrive and communicate the excitement. The queen no longer laid in the cells, she dropped her eggs: the bees no longer cared for the young; they ran through the hive in every direction; even those returning from the field, before the agitation reached its height, no sooner entered the hive than they participated in these tumultuous motions, and neglecting to rid themselves of the pollen pellets which they carried upon their legs, ran about blindly. At last, in another moment, all the bees rushed to the entrance of the hive and the queen with them.
As it was very important for me to see the formation of new swarms in this hive, and that for that reason I wished it to remain very populous, I caused the queen to be removed at the time when she came out, so that the bees might not fly too far but would return. In fact after losing their female, they did return to the hive. To increase the population still more, I added another swarm which had issued from a straw hive on the same morning, and whose queen was also removed.