6 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. 



The hive was no sooner reached than she was seen going 

 into it. She had been abroad before the drones had come 

 out. In about five minutes after her return she came out 

 again, and took wing amid a noisy rabble of drones. 



The statements of some authors about queens selecting 

 their lovers in their hives, and then going away together 

 to make their nuptial couches high up in the air, where no 

 eye may follow, are mere poetical fancies. When a queen 

 comes out for this purpose, she comes by herself: she has no 

 favourites — will accept a mate from a strange hive, or from, 

 a distance, as readUy as from her own hive. How far she wiU 

 fly in search of a mate is not known. But it is well known 

 that drones fly great distances from home, and often impreg- 

 nate queens which they happen to meet. Though there 

 were a great many hives in our garden last year, and 

 drones enough in every one of them, some of our young 

 queens were made fruitful by contact with Italian or 

 Ligurian drones. Now, no bee-keeper within a distance of 

 four miles has bees of this kind. This fact shows that 

 pairing inside never takes place. 



But where does copulation take place 1 In the air, 

 . or on the ground t Most writers think it takes place in 

 the air. We believe it takes place on the ground — that 

 the queen is caught, in the air by the drone, and both come 

 down. Last summer I saw a queen hotly pursued by 

 two drones. She was overtaken, but they did not catch 

 her. As soon as they apparently reached her, she doubled 

 and went back as a hare does when pursued by dogs. 

 She gained a few paces at the turn, and all went out of 

 my sight. When I was a lad, in my father's house, a 

 labouring man called to teU us what he had seen while dig- 

 ging in a field about half a mile from our house. He heard 

 a great noise, as if a swarm were passing over his head ; he 

 instantly looked up, when a ball or cluster of drones fell 



