54 FECUNDATION OF THE QUEEN BEE BY THE DRONE. 



in two ovaria, each ovarium being an assemblage of an asto- 

 nishing number of ducts, terminating in one common chan- 

 nel, and all of which are filled with eggs during the breeding 

 season. 



The fecundity of the queen bee is most astonishing, and 

 scarcely to be equalled in any other insect or animal, with the 

 exception offish. She lays her eggs as long as there is a cell 

 in which to deposit them, and the first question to be decided 

 is, in what manner and at what time are those eggs fecun- 

 dated? There is not, perhaps, any subject in the whole 

 physiology of the bee, on which a greater contrariety of 

 opinion has been held, or to which a more minute attention 

 has been paid. Hypothesis has been heaped upon hypo- 

 thesis, each, perhaps, more absurd and untenable than the 

 other. Systems of the most extravagant nature have been 

 adopted, and the whole force of human sagacity and inge- 

 nuity has been taxed to discover this great secret in the 

 works of nature ; but after all these exertions, the same 

 doubt exists as at the commencement of the investigation. 

 The English apiarians, Thorley, Varder, Wildman, Bonner, 

 Keys, &c, have each had his respective system, and each 

 fancied that he was the fortunate discoverer of the secret. 

 The French apiarians have studied this matter more scienti- 

 fically and profoundly, but in some of their systems, the 

 greatest inconsistency and contradiction prevail. 



According to the system of Huber, the queen is fecun- 

 dated by a single act of coition with a single drone, but the 

 very circumstance by which this fecundation takes place, 

 namely, by a casual rencontre in the open air, verges very 

 nearly upon the impossible. Huber does not affirm that the 

 queen takes the drone with her, but that they encounter each 

 other by chance, and that from this one act of coition, the 

 ovarium of the queen is sufficiently fecundated for the whole 

 season, and not only for the current year, but for the re- 

 mainder of her life. There is something directly contrary 



