EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK-PART X. 675 



the hive, in some way attracts a great many drones to her from all parts 

 of the apiary, provided her hive is located in a bee-yard, and the swiftest 

 and strongest is successful in the race. The other drones often follow 

 the queen back to her hive, and for an hour or two remain on the outside 

 of the hive after she has entered, but later they return to their former 

 hives. 



The queen returns from the mating flight in about half an hour, 

 carrying with her the generative organs of the male, which is killed 

 during the union of the two. Near the posterior end of the queen is a 

 small sac, which, before the flight, is filled with a clear liquid, but after 

 her return this sac is filled with an opaque fluid; and it is the reception 

 of this opaque substance which is the essential thing in mating. This 

 liquid contains millions of spermatozoa, or male sex cells, each one of 

 which is capable of fertilizing an egg as it glides past the opening of the 

 sac. This supply of spermatozoa is almost always sufficient to supply 

 the eggs laid by a queen for three or four years — it rarely happening that 

 she mates a second time before laying. Since a queen can, during her 

 lifetime, lay a total of 500,000 eggs, most of which receive one of these 

 spermatozoa, it will be seen that the apparatus for preserving them is 

 very perfect, since the queen cannot generate more and they do not divide 

 or increase in number in any way. 



The mating of queen and drone never occurs in the hive, but always 

 in the air, on the wing. This fact prevents what is known as in-and-in 

 breeding; for if the queen mated in her hive she would receive sperma- 

 tozoa from her brothers, and we know that such close breeding is unde- 

 sirable in all forms of life. The cause of the undesirable results of 

 in-breeding are yet a mystery; but we do know that they follow, and 

 this habit of the queen of mating outside the hive renders close crossing 

 less probable. After the queen has returned to her hive the workers 

 remove the male organs. These parts of the male are not absorbed by 

 the queen, as is sometimes claimed; but the spermatozoa contained in 

 them are taken into the spermatheca and the rest dries up and is re- 

 moved. Almost as soon as the queen returns from her flight there is a 

 difference in the treatment which she receives from the workers. It 

 happens at times that she is not received kindly after taking her flight, 

 and may be killed by the workers, which do not recognize her as their 

 queen, probably on account of some new odor which she has acquired 

 during her absence. This is rare, however, for ordinarily she is the 

 object of much attention on her return. From this time on, whenever she 

 stops for a moment on the comb, either to deposit an egg or to rest, she 

 is surrounded by the workers. In about two days after mating the 

 young queen begins to lay, and this one duty she performs until her 

 death, never again leaving the hive except with a swarm. 



The colony with the young queen is now in the same condition as the 

 one which left the hive, both having laying queens, combs, brood and a 

 sealed hive. Their histories, under normal circumstances, are then prac- 

 tically the same. Both prepare for winter, and the following spring both 

 cast swarms again, and so the cycle is repeated. Such is the activity of 

 bees under favorable conditions; but, needless to say, this ideal is not 

 always realized, and we will now follow colonies under other conditions. 



