I do not ascribe to myself the credit of having discovered the humming of the queen bee. Old authors speak of it. M. de Reaumur cites a Latin work published 1671, _Monarchia Femina_, by Charles Butler. He gives a very brief abstract of this naturalist's observations, who we easily see has exaggerated or rather disguised the truth, by mixing it with the most absurd fancies; but it is not the less evident that Butler has heard this peculiar humming of queens, and that he did not confound it with the confused humming sometimes heard in hives. Fourthly. _The young queens conducting swarms from their native hive are still in a virgin state._ The day after, being settled in their new abode, they generally depart in quest of the males; and this is usually the fifth day of their existence as queens; for two or three pass in captivity, one in their native hive, and a fifth in their new dwelling. 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 preservation of her fecundity. A single copulation is sufficient to impregnate all the eggs she will lay for at least two years. _PREGNY, 8. September 1791._ FOOTNOTES: {M} Schirach seems to have been aware of this fact.--T. LETTER XI. _THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED._ I have collected my chief observations on swarms in the two preceding letters; those most frequently repeated, and of which the uniformity of result leads me to apprehend no error. I have deduced what seem the most direct consequences; and in all the theoretical part, I have sedulously avoided going beyond facts. What is yet to be mentioned is more hypothetical, but it engrosses several curious experiments.