Impregnation of ^ueen. 93 



drone-laying queen. One queen, however, the past season, 

 whose wing was clipped just as she came from the cell, 

 and the entrance to whose hive was guarded by perforated 

 zinc so the queen could not get out, was impregnated, and 

 proved an excellent queen. Yet from a great number of 

 experiments, I doubt if mating in confinement can ever be 

 made practicable, even if desirable. And if Leuckart'is 

 correct in the above suggestion, which is very probable, it 

 is not desirable. Some bee-keepers claim to have mated 

 queens by hand. I have tried this thoroughly, as also mat- 

 ing in boxes, queen-houses, etc., etc., and from entire lack 

 of success, I believe such mating is impossible, at least with 

 most bee-keepers. 



If the queen fails to. find an admirer the first day, she 

 will go forth again and again till she succeeds. Huber 

 states that after twenty-one days the case is hopeless. Bevan 

 states that if impregnated from the fifteenth to the twenty- 

 first she will be largely a drone-laying queen. That such 

 absolute dates can be fixed in either of the above cases is 

 very questionajDle. Yet all experienced breeders know 

 that queens kept through the winter as virgins are sui'e to 

 remain so. It is quite likely that the long inactivity of the 

 reproductive apparatus, especially of the oviduct and sper- 

 matheca, wholly or in part paralyzes it, so that queens that 

 are late in mating cannot impregnate the eggs as they desire. 

 This vsrould accord with what w^e know of othe,r muscular 

 organs. Berlepsch believed that a queen that commenced 

 laying as a virgin could never lay impregnated eggs, even 

 though she afterwards mated. Langstroth thought that he 

 had observed to the contrary. 



If the queen be observed after a successful " wedding 

 tour," she will be seen, as first pointed out by Huber, to 

 bear the marks of success in the pendant drone appendages, 

 which are still held in the vulva of the queen. 



It is not at all likely that a queen, after she has met a 

 drone, ever leaves the hive again except when she leaves 

 with a swarm. It has been stated that an old queen may 

 be impregnated. I feel very certain that this is an error. 



If the queen lays eggs before meeting the drone, or if 

 for any reason she fail to mate, her eggs will only produce 



