THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



69 



rect that a queen flies one-half mile 

 from home and the drone one mile, I 

 ask what is there to hinder the queen 

 being the one-half mile from home 

 when she meets a drone a mile from 

 home? I can see nothing, and if I 

 am correct in this, this very thing 

 would show the faulty part of the 

 argument, and prove that at least one 

 and one-half miles were needed to 

 secure pure mating, based upon this 

 writer's opinion. But let us look at 

 some facts, for these are always strong- 

 er than theories, or anything based 

 upon supposition. Many years ago 

 when I was a boy, we planted a piece 

 of corn on a high hill, from which 

 there were no bees nearer than two 

 miles, unless perchance, astray swarm 

 might have been in a small piece of 

 woods not quite so far off. As this 

 season was a very wet one during the 

 forepart of it, the weeds got the start 

 of us so that they were quite rank in 

 the corn in the forepart of August. 

 As soon as we were through haying 

 we went into this cornfield to cut 

 weeds. Every afternoon, from one to 

 three o'clock, it would sound as if there 

 was a swarm of bees in the air, and at 

 first we looked often to see if we could 

 not find them, but, as none were dis- 

 covered, we concluded that it must be 

 flies of some kind which congregated 

 there to play. Previous to this, father 

 had kept bees, and had often pointed 

 out the queen to me as a swarm was 

 going into a hive, so that I knew all 

 three classes of bees perfectly well. 

 One day I was sent to this cornfield 

 alone, and as it was a very warm day, 

 along about two o'clock I felt extreme- 

 ly tired, and so laid down partly in 

 the shade of the corn , to rest. As I 

 remained there listening to the hum 



of the flies, as I supposed, I thought I 

 would try and ascertain if I could see 

 anything. So shading my eyes by 

 placing one hand on either side of 

 them and looking steadily up into the 

 clear sky, after a little I could see 

 thousands of living creatures circling 

 in all directions, so swift that at times 

 they looked like a streak of black 

 shooting across the sky. As I was 

 looking at them, I saw a dozen or so 

 of these shooting objects give chase 

 after another, and soon overtake it, 

 when their flight was less rapid. 

 Circling around and coming lower 

 they apparently nearly all left, but 

 the center as it were, and as this cen- 

 ter came near the ground it stopped 

 on the tassel of a cornstalk which 

 stood about a rod from where I lay. 

 I got up at once and proceeded to the 

 stalk, but before I was half way to it 

 something flew away which looked to 

 me like a queen honey bee, and at the 

 same time something fell to the 

 ground. Upon picking that which 

 fell to the ground up, I found it to be 

 a dead drone. Although at that time 

 I knew little of bee lore, still I had 

 solved the mystery of the humming 

 noise, no longer believing it to be 

 flies that made the noise, but knowing 

 it to be made by the drones of the 

 honey bee. Since then I have heard 

 the same humming noise in the after- 

 noon of warm days in August in 

 different places, and now believe that 

 this was a place where drones and 

 queens congregated ; but the facts 

 only show that in this instance drones 

 were numerous which flew two miles 

 from home. Again, when I first kept 

 bees, there were no Italians nearer 

 than five miles distant, yet I found 

 that some of my young queens would 



