6 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. 



garden last year, and drones enough in every one of them, 

 some of our young queens were made fruitful by contact 

 with Italian or Liguiian drones. Ko feee-keeper that we 

 knew of, having Ligurian bees, lived within four miles' 

 distance of our apiary. Pairing does not take place in- 

 side of hives. 



But where does copulation take place ? In the air, or 

 on the ground 1 Most writers on bees think it takes 

 place in the air. We think it takes place on the ground — 

 that the queen is caught in the air by one or more drones, 

 and both come to the ground. Last summer we saw a 

 queen hotly pursued by two drones. They overtook her, 

 when she doubled, and went back as a hare does when 

 pursued and overtaken by dogs. She gained a few paces 

 at the turn, and aU went out of my sight. When I was 

 a lad, in my father's house, a labouring man called to tell 

 us what he had seen while digging in a field about half 

 a mile distant from our house. He heard a great noise, 

 as if a swarm of bees were passing over his head ; he in- 

 stantly looked up, when a ball of drones fell at his feet, 

 half the size of his spade-handle. With a bit of stick 

 he began to poke among the drones, when to his astonish- 

 ment a queen crawled out of the cluster and took wing, 

 followed in a twinkling by all the drones. His statement ■ 

 we beheved at the time, and stiU believe it. 



A great many queens are lost on their marriage-tours . 

 they never return. Whether they fall into water and are 

 thus lost, or lose their way home,or go into wrong hives, we 

 cannot say ; but most bee-keepers of observation and ex- 

 perience well know that these necessary excursions are 

 not unattended with risk, and often with loss. 



It is well for apiarians that their queens, when timely 

 fertilised, never require drones again as long as they live. 

 It is believed that during the first ten days of their lives 

 copulation may take place more than once, but after- 



