THE AMERICAN APICULTURI8T. 



181 



NEW OBSERVATIONS ON 



THE NATURAL HISTORY 



OF BEES. 



Bv Fhancis Hubek. 



(Continued from p. 156, Vol. III.) 



He asserts that there were no 

 drones in the hive during the course 

 of the experiment, but although they 

 were absent the queen laid eggs from 

 which worms proceeded ; whence he 

 considers that she is impregnated by 

 herself. 



Reflecting on this experiment, I 

 did not find it sulSciently accurate. 

 Males pass with great facility from 

 hive to hive ; and Hattorf took no 

 precaution against any being intro- 

 duced into his. He says, indeed, 

 there was no male, but is silent re- 

 specting the means adopted to prove 

 the fact ; and although he might be 

 satisfied of no large drone being 

 present, still a small one might have 

 escaped his vigilance, and fecundated 

 the queen. With a view to clear up 

 the doubt I resolved to repeat his 

 experiment, in the manner described 

 by him, and without greater care or 

 precaution. 



I put a virgin queen into a hive, 

 from which all the males were exclud- 

 ed, but the bees left at perfect lib- 

 erty. Several days afterwards I 

 visited the hive, and found newly 

 hatched worms in it. Here then was 

 the same result as Hattorf obtained ! 

 But before deducing the same con- 

 sequence, we had to ascertain beyond 

 dispute that no male had entered the 

 hive. Thus it was necessary to im- 

 merse the bees, and examine each 

 separately ; by which operation we 

 actually found four small males. 

 Therefore, to render the experiment 

 decisive, not only was it requisite to 

 remove all the drones., but also by 

 some infallible method, to prevent 

 any from being introduced, which the 

 German naturalist had neglected. 



I prepared to repair this omission 



by putting a virgin queen into a hive 

 from which the whole of the males 

 were carefully removed ; and to be 

 physically certain that none could ob- 

 tain access, a glass tube was adapted 

 at the entrance of such dimensions 

 that the working bees could freely 

 pass and repass, but too narrow for 

 the smallest male. Matters continued 

 thus for thirty days ; the workers de- 

 parting and returning, performed their 

 usual labours, but the queen re- 

 mained sterile. At the expiration of 

 that time her belly was equally slen- 

 der as at the moment of her origin. 

 I repeated the experiment several 

 times, and always with tb.e same re- 

 sult. 



Therefore, as a queen, rigorously 

 separated from all commerce with 

 the male, remains sterile, it is evident 

 she cannot impregnate herself, and 

 that Hattorf's opinion is ill-founded. 



Hitherto, by endeavoring to con- 

 fute or verify the conjectures of all 

 the authors who had preceded me, 

 by new experiments, I had acquired 

 the knowledge of new facts, but these 

 were apparently so contradictory as 

 to render the solution of the prob- 

 lem still more difficult. 



While examining Mr. Debraw's hy- 

 pothesis I confined a queen in a hive, 

 from which all the drones were re- 

 moved ; yet she was fertile. When 

 considering the opinion of Hattorf, 

 on the contrary, I put one of whose 

 virginity I was perfectly satisfied in 

 the same situation : she remained 

 sterile. 



Embarrassed by so many difficul- 

 ties, I was on the point of abandon- 

 ing the subject of my researches, 

 when at length on more attentive re- 

 flection, I thought these contradic- 

 tions might arise from experiments 

 made indifferently on virgin queens, 

 with whose history I was not acquaint- 

 ed from the origin, and which per- 

 haps had been fecundated unknown 

 to me. 



\^To be continued.'\ 



