14 miner's AMERICAN 



huber's discovery of the impregnation op a aUEEN. 



" Aware that the males usually leave the hive in the 

 warmest part of the day, in summer, it was natural to 

 suppose that if the queens were obliged to go out for 

 fecundation, instinct would induce them to do so at the 

 same time as the others. 



"At eleven in the forenoon, we placed ourselves 

 {Beurnens was the one to watch for the queen, directed 

 by Huher, the reader will understand ; yet Huber al- 

 ways wrote as if he could see,) opposite to a hive con- 

 taining an unimpregnated queen, five days old. The 

 sun had shone from his rising, the air was very warm, 

 and the males began to leave the hives. We then en- 

 larged the entrance (Huber had contracted the entrances 

 of several hives to prevent the egress oj the queens^ of 

 that selected for observation, and paid great attention to 

 the bees entering and departing. The males appeared 

 and immediately took flight. Soon afterwards the 

 young queen came to the entrance ; at first she did not, 

 but during a little time traversed the board, brushing 

 her belly with her hind legs, neither workers nor males 

 bestowing any notice on her. At last she took flight. 

 When several feet from the hive she returned and ap- 

 proached it, as if to examine the place of her departure, 

 perhaps judging this precaution necessary to recognize 

 it; she then flew away, describing horizontal circles 

 twelve or fifteen feet above the earth. We contracted 

 the entrance of the hive that she might not return un- 

 observed, and placing ourselves in the centre of the cir- 



