70 Beekeeping 



On such a trip she meets the drone and after mating ^ takes 

 place she returns to the hive. She may be followed back 

 by a considerable number of drones which sometimes re- 

 main about the front of the hive for several hours. The 

 mating flight may last only a few minutes or may be pro- 

 tracted to over a half-hour, probably depending on the 

 number of drones in flight near by. The male genital organs 

 which are torn off in mating may often be seen protruding 

 from the queen's vagina and this is useful to the beekeeper 

 as evidence of mating. These parts shrivel in a short time 

 and are removed by the workers. In about two days after 



flown outdoors, it being found that drones which had experienced flight 

 in the open air soon wore themselves out on the glass in their efforts to 

 escape. Virgin queens were introduced to the nuclei and their flights 

 were observed from the rafters above. The first flights were circles of 

 small diameter and while on these flights the queens were never seen to 

 be followed by drones. If the virgins did not fly frequently enough to 

 satisfy the observers they would sometimes be removed and tossed into 

 the air, when they behaved normally. Finally the virgin would dart from 

 the entrance and swiftly circle upward, often followed by several drones. 

 She would soon strike the glass roof and alight and the drones would at 

 once disperse, there apparently being no attraction in a queen at rest. It 

 has long been the dream of beekeepers to induce mating in an inclosure, 

 so that mating can be controlled for purposes of selection and the observa- 

 tions here mentioned were instigated by this desire. No queenp mated in 

 the room. The virgin queens usually returned to the nuclei unassisted, 

 unless the flight occurred late in the afternoon. 



During the summers of 1903 and 1904, several unsuccessful attempts 

 were made to produce drone-laying queens (p. 187) by confining virgin 

 queens to prevent mating flights. During the morning the small nuclei 

 showed no special signs of excitement but in the early afternoon the queens 

 would attempt lo eave the hive and would be prevented by the perforated 

 zinc over the entrances. They would sometimes continue these efforts 

 until dark. While this was going on, the workers would crowd around the 

 entrance both inside and out and rush about "as if offering assistance." 

 These efforts were not observed during the first few days after emergence 

 of the queens from the cell and finally the queens were no longer seen at 

 the entrances. Within a month they had all died. Whether this was due 

 to over-exertion or to the inability to mate or whether they were killed by 

 the workers could not be determined. Keeping virgin queens in cages was 

 equally unsuccessful. 



1 The act of mating is rarely seen, but a few beekeepers have reported 

 instances in which this was observed. Apparently after the union the queen 

 and drone fall to the ground and the queen turns around and around until 

 she tears the copulatory organs from the dead drone. 



