How does a queen bee keep her colony together? In Nature, Dr. James Simpson of Rothamsted Experimental Station, England, reported that her influence is a scent more compelling than any compounded by French perfumers.
When a cluster of swarming bees is deprived of its queen, the bees soon desert to other bee colonies unless she returns. To find out why, Dr. Simpson imprisoned a queen in a wire-screen cage with double walls. He put the cage near a cluster of worried, queenless bees. The workers responded joyously. They swarmed all over the cage,...
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