60# Poisier of the Commofi Bee 



Art. IV. On the Poxver of the Common Bee to generate a Queen* 

 By Robert Huish, Esq., Author of " A Treatise on Bees." 



Sir, 



In one of the earliest epochs of apiarian science, a con- 

 siderable degree of importance was attached to the formation 

 of artificial swarms ; and this plan originated in the well 

 known fact of several queens being bred in the same hive 

 during one season ; whilst, on the other hand, a hive seldom 

 throws off more than two swarms : consequently, this surplus of 

 queens must by some means be destroyed by the bees. And, 

 in order to obviate this necessary act of precaution on the 

 part of the bees, it was suggested to take the supernumerary 

 queens from a hive, and, by giving to each a proportionate 

 number of subjects, a corresponding number of artificial hives 

 jnight be formed, which, under auspicious circumstances, 

 would acquire sufficient strength and food to support them- 

 selves during the winter. 



Another method was subsequently adopted, the chief prin- 

 ciple of which consisted in extracting from a prolific hive a 

 certain portion of comb filled with eggs and larvae; and, 

 having fastened it in another hive, then to introduce a num- 

 ber of common bees, who proceeded in the regular way to nou-i 

 rish the brood, and to create Jor themselves a queen. This plan, 

 however, soon fell into desuetude, from the extreme rarity of 

 its success, and the positively injurious effects which it pro- 

 duced on the parent hive, by the frequent drains upon its 

 population. It is, however, this extraordinary power of creat- 

 ing a queen, alleged to be possessed by the common bee, and 

 with which some writers of the present day even hesitate not 

 to invest that insect, which at this time excites the attention 

 of all persons who have made the natural economy of the bee 

 the particular object of their study : and, strongly impressed 

 as I am with the conviction of the utter fallacy of many of the 

 arguments adduced in favour of the above hypothesis, I now 

 submit the following refutatory remarks to the impartial and 

 dispassionate consideration of those, whose minds are not 

 swayed by antiquated prejudices, and who object to receive a 

 position as substantially correct, merely because it has been 

 advanced by an individual of acknowledged and deserved 

 celebrity. ::? 



Schirach, to whom we are indebted for much valuable in*i 

 formation relative to the natural history of the bee, as well as 

 for many absurd and untenable theories, was a strenuous advo- 

 cate for this presumed power of the common bee ; and he says 

 that it is merely necessary that an e^g should be in the comb. 



