114 THE beb-ksepbr's guide; 



lar tent. The drones are permitted to fly only in the tent, and 

 so are at home. 



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. Sevan states that 

 if impregnated from the fifteenth to the twenty-first she will 

 be largely a drone-layingqueen. That such absolute dates can 

 be fixed in either of the above cases is very questionable. Yet 

 all experienced breeders know that queens kept through the 

 winter as virgins are sure to remain so. It is quite likely that 

 the long inactivity of the reproductive apparatus, especially of 

 the oviduct and spermatheca, wholly or in part paralyzes it, so 

 that queens that are late in mating can not impregnate the 

 eggs as they desire. This would accord with what we know of 

 other 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 im- 

 pregnated. 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 male 

 bees. This strange anomaly — development of the eggs with- 

 out impregnation — was discovered and proved by Dzierzon, in 

 1845. Dr. Dzierzon, who, as a student of practical and scien- 

 tific apiculture, ranks very high, is a Roman Catholic priest of 

 Carlsmarkt, Germany. This doctrine— called parthenogenesis, 

 which means produced from a virgin — is still doubted by some 

 quite able bee-keepers, though the proofs are irrefragable : 



1st. Unmated queens will lay eggs that will develop, but 

 drones always result. 



2d. Old queens often become drone-layers, but examina- 

 tion shows that the spermatheca is void of seminal fluid. Such 



