36 MINER S AMERICAN 



ed; but I found a small increase of drone-larvee, and the 

 most of what I originally discovered, regularly matured. 

 On making the discovery of drone-brood, I searched 

 in vain for the queen, and being able, with the feather 

 end of a quill, to almost bring every bee in sight, and 

 after many attempts at her discovery, not seeing any 

 signs of royalty, save the brood as before stated, I came 

 to the conclusion, that I had a veritable instance of the 

 fecundity of workers ! I was forced to become a dis- 

 ciple of Huber, on the fertility of workers in certain 

 cases, and that they lay drone-eggs only, that is, for the 

 time being, until a new feature was thrown over the 

 subject. About the 20th of June, I had several swarms 

 issue on the same day, and unexpectedly finding myself 

 without hives, I concluded that I might as well take the 

 hive in question, and use it ; since it was out of the 

 question, for it to be re-peopled by its present occupants, 

 and I accordingly took it, and used it in a case where 

 two swarms had clustered together. I took it just as it 

 was, with its bees, honey and combs, and having put 

 about half of the two swarms into another hive, I im- 

 mediately put the other half into this hive, and placed 

 the two about a foot apart, so that in case I missed get- 

 ting a queen in either of them, the bees in the hive in 

 which no queen should chance to be, would find the 

 other hive easily and enter it. How great was my sur- 

 prise to find that a war of extermination was immedi- 

 ately waged against the few bees in the hive containing 

 the drone-brood, and in half an hour, every bee that 

 originally inhabited it, lay dead upon the blanket, upon 



