IN THE HONEY-BEE. 4? 



But even for practice the Dzierzon bee-hives were of the 

 greatest importance, for Dzierzon could know exactly, at any 

 time, and of any one of his bee-hives, how strongly it was 

 peopled, how industrious its inhabitants were, and what they 

 were occupied with. He could always inform himself whether the 

 number of workers was in proportion to that of the brood pro- 

 duced by the queen, whether the number or presence of drone- 

 larva? was or was not useful to the hive, whether the necessary 

 store of food was present, &c. With all this, the intelligent Bee- 

 keeper and possessor of Dzierzon hives, by the aid of which 

 a complete insight into the state of each household of Bees 

 might be attained, could exercise a directing and correcting 

 action, by adding the wanting number of necessary workers to 

 a hive which was poor in workers^ or taking away some of the 

 combs filled with eggs and brood from another scantily-peopled 

 hive, so as to lighten its work, and hanging them in an abun- 

 dantly-peopled hive for further care. The careful Bee-keeper 

 now knew from what hives he had to remove the combs filled 

 with drone-larvae which were either unnecessary or dangerous ; 

 he was enabled to save a hive, the inhabitants of which, although 

 otherwise industrious, threatened to become demoralized by the 

 loss of their queen, from this dangerous state of anarchy, by 

 taking care to replace this loss, where the Bees themselves 

 omitted to do so. In short, with the assistance of Dzierzon's 

 hives, an experienced and careful Bee-keeper may go to work 

 like an intelligent gardener, who, by cutting away the unneces- 

 sary shoots, and attending properly to the bud-bearing twigs, 

 prepares and supports his trees for the production of a rich 

 harvest of fruit*. 



* Although it is several years since Dzierzon gave his " New Theory and 

 Practice of Bee-keeping" to the knowledge and use of the public through the 

 medium of the press, the advances made by Dzierzon in Bee-keeping have 

 only been able to make their way slowly and gradually in the circle of Bee- 

 keepers ; nay, it took still longer before the assertions of Dzierzon relating 

 to the reproduction of the Bees passed out of this circle to reach the ears of a 

 physiologist and naturalist. For this, Dzierzon himself is to blame ; this 

 Apiarian, otherwise so practical, hesitated to give his manuscript upon " Theory 

 and Practice" to a respectable bookseller for publication, but preferred making 

 known his inventions and discoveries in an extremely unpractical way, by 

 allowing his Neue Theorie und Praxis to appear at first as published by him- 



