PAIRING OF BEES, 257 



she nevertheless deposited eggs. * Huber, likewise, 

 repeated this experiment ; but when he employed a 

 queen which had never left the hive from her birth, 

 she always remained barren. Huber thus finding 

 that none of these opinions are tienable, set himself 

 to investigate the circumstances, by further experi- 

 ments, which were rewarded by the discovery that 

 the queen-bee always leaves the hive for the pur- 

 pose of pairing, flying high in the air, and generally 

 returning in about half an hour. We shall use his 

 own words in relating the more conclusive of these 

 interesting experiments. 



^ From a very great number of hives,' says he, 

 ' I removed all the reigning females, and substituted 

 for each, a queen taken at the moment of her birth. 

 These experimental hives were divided into two 

 classes, — from the first, all the males, both large and 

 small, were taken, and I adapted a glass tube at the 

 entrance so narrow that no male could pass, while 

 it admitted a free passage to the workers. In the 

 hives of the second class, 1 left the whole of the males 

 belonging to them, and even introduced more, while, 

 in order to prevent their exit, a glass tube similar to 

 the former was fixed to the entrance. For more than 

 a month, I carefully watched the progress of these 

 experiments ; but, much to my surprise, every queen 

 remained barren ; and thence I concluded that pair- 

 ing could not take place within the hive, 



' Knowing that in summer the males usually leave 

 the hive in the warmest part of the day, I inferred 

 that if the queens did go out to meet them, it must 

 be about the same time. Accordingly, at eleven 

 in the forenoon, on the 29th of June, 1788, we 

 placed ourselves opposite a hive containing a virgin- 

 queen, five days old. The sun shone brightly, the 

 air was warm, and the males began to go abroad. 



;^ * Schirach, Hist. Nat. de la Reine dps Abeilles, 8vo. 1771, 

 VOL, XII, 2^* 



