194 THE 1IIVE AND HONKY-BEE. 



days, are found to be untenanted. At the second attempt 

 they usually start a larger number, and seldom fail of suc- 

 cess. Does practice make them more perfect ? or were 

 some of the necessary conditions wanting at first ? 



The following able communication, from the pen of Dr. 

 Donhoff, may throw some light on this subject : " Dzier- 

 zon states it as a fact, that worker-bees attend more ex- 

 clusively .to the domestic concerns of the colony in the 

 early period of life ; assuming the discharge of the more 

 active out-door duties only during the later periods of 

 their existence. The Italian bees furnished me with suit- 

 able means to test the correctness of this opinion. 



"On the 18th of April, 1855,1 introduced an Italian 

 queen into a colony of common bees; and on the 10th of 

 May following, the first Italian workers emerged from the 

 cells. On the ensuing day, they emerged in great numbers, 

 as the colony had been kept in good condition by regular 

 and plentiful feeding. I will arrange my observations 

 under the following heads : 



"1. On the 10th of May the first Italian workers 

 emerged ; and on the 17th they made their first appear- 

 ance outside of the hive. On the next day. and then 



An extract from Hubert preface will be interesting in this connection. After 

 speaking of his blindness, and praising the extraordinary taste for Natural History, 

 of his assistant, Burnens, "who was born with the talents of an observer," he says: 

 " Every one of the facts I now publish, we have seen, over and over again, during 

 the period of eight years, which we have employed in making our observations on 

 bees. It is impossible to form a just idea of the patience and skill with which 

 Burnens has carried out the experiments which I am about to describe ; he has 

 often watched some of the working bees of our hives, which we had reason to 

 think fertile, for the space of twenty-four hours, without distraction * * * * and ho 

 counted fatigue and pain as nothing, compared with the great desire he felt to 

 know the results. If, then, there be any merit in our discoveries, I must share th 

 honor with him ; and I have great satisfaction in rendering him this act of public 

 justice." 



And yet the man who was too noble to appropriate the merits of his servant, has, 

 by many, been considered base enough to attempt to impose upon the world, as 

 well established facts, things scarcely more probable than the fictions of " Sinbad 

 the Sailor." 



