48 PARTHENOGENESIS 



In turning to the more exact exposition of Dzierzon's theory 

 of the reproduction of Bees, I give prominence to the most im- 

 portant points in the history of their propagation, upon the 

 establishment of which Dzierzon must have laid particular 

 stress, as a number of the proceedings in a bee-hive relating to 

 reproduction can only find their correct explanation and elucida- 

 dation if we maintain, that the young unfecundated queen never 

 copulates in the bee-hive, but always outside this, high up in the 

 air. I pass over the lively dispute which has been carried on 

 amongst Bee-keepers from time immemorial for the defence or 

 rejection of this point, and only refer to the fact that a queen 

 has never been surprised in the act of copulation within the 

 bee-hive by any Apiarian who has obtained an insight into the 

 interior of a hive by the employment of Dzierzon's hives. The 

 drones, as long as they remain in the hive, are always extremely 

 sluggish insects, which are not even roused from their quietude 

 and phlegm by the proximity of a queen desirous of copulation ; 

 on the other hand, when a warm, clear and still day has allured 

 them out into the open air, the sexual and copulative impulse 



self, and afterwards disposing of it to a private individual living in a village in 

 Silesia for further distribution. Von Berlepsch justly complains of such a 

 proceeding (in the extra Supplement to No. 21 of the Eichstadt Bienenzeitung, 

 1852), as he, and with him many other Apiarians, were prevented by this 

 awkward and troublesome arrangement from an early adoption of the true 

 Dzierzon methodof Bee-keeping ; for (as Berlepsch expresses himself upon the 

 Dzierzon hives) the invention of being able to take out the individual combs 

 suspended from little sticks, is undoubtedly the most practically important 

 one that has ever been made in Bee-keeping, and one which must necessarily 

 reform, that is to say, antiquate all previous methods, and to which alone 

 Dzierzon is indebted for the excellence of his breeds, and the almost complete 

 revelation of the natural history of Bees, their mode of life and of working. 

 After Dzierzon had sold his intellectual property into strange hands, which 

 withheld the most important part of his method, the right construction of the 

 true Dzierzon hives, from the public, he made another attempt to bring his 

 " Theory and Practice of Bee-keeping " into general notice, by printing in the 

 year 1854 the Bienenfreund aus Schlesien, a monthly journal of instruction 

 and entertainment for lovers of nature in general, and Bee-keepers in par- 

 ticular. Of this journal (published by Ad. Bander in Brieg) twenty-five 

 numbers have appeared up to this time ; but I fear that, from its inconvenient 

 form, and the somewhat diffuse style of the text, this means selected by 

 Dzierzon is not adapted to make the public acquainted and familiar with the 

 real essence of his theory and practice. 



