IN THE HONEY-BEE. 4 ."> 



manner that it may now claim to have taken root in the soil of 

 science, there to await a further development. Great merit, in 

 regard to the recognition of Dzierzon's theory, is due to Baron 

 von Berlepsch of Seebach, near Langensalza in Thuringia, as that 

 intelligent and experienced Apiarian neither shunned sacrifices, 

 time or trouble to obtain the most important information upon 

 the hotly contested questions relating to the reproduction of Bees 

 from his numerous Bee-colonies, which are extremely well arranged 

 for observation. In a series of Apistical letters Berlepsch* has 

 given a systematic exposition of the new theory of the reproduction 

 of the Bees, and supplied the individual positions with proofs sup- 

 ported upon the most arduous experiments, by which he has 

 shown himself to be a distinguished observer and acute naturalist. 

 It must also be mentioned that Dzierzon deserves to be cele- 

 brated as making an aera not only in the theory, but also in the 

 practice of Bee-keeping. He has, namely, given the Bee-hive an 

 arrangement, by which it becomes possible for the Bee-keeper 

 not only to follow the observation of the individual Bee-colonies 

 and to check the proceedings of their individual members or of 

 the foreign intruders in the most exact and certain manner, but 

 also to control and guide the entire ceconomy of the indi- 

 vidual hives from all sides. He hit upon the happy idea of 

 causing the Bees to build their combs from transverse sticks 

 placed loosely behind one another in the upper space of the 

 bee-hive, by which he was enabled as often as he pleased to 

 examine the whole of the combs in a hive one after the other, 

 the interior of the hive being rendered accessible by taking 

 away a moveable back or front wall, — as by this arrangement 

 each individual comb, clinging from beneath to the loose trans- 

 verse stick, can be taken out with this, examined on both sides, 

 and again suspended in its place without injury. By the help of 

 this ingenious arrangement f it had become possible for Dzierzon 



* These Apistical letters are published in the Eichstadt Bienenzeitung for 

 the years 1853 and 1854, and form an extremely important document for our 

 knowledge of the history of reproduction in the Bees and Insects in general. 



f As the lateral adhesion of the combs built down from the sticks frequently 

 rendered their removal difficult, Berlepsch tried to avoid this inconvenience in 

 a very ingenious way, by suspending in his hives, instead of the sticks, small 

 quadrangular frames, the vacuity of which the Bees till up with their comb, by 



