74 QUEEN BEES BRED IN OCTOBER. 



the intercourse with the male precedes the existence 

 of the egg. This experiment of Huber, however, is de- 

 fective in some of its most essential points. He does not 

 inform us that he examined the queen at the moment of 

 her incarceration, in order to determine the absence of 

 any eggs in her ovarium ; and, further, he does not inform 

 us that be daily examined the combs of the hive for the 

 purpose of ascertaining the existence of any eggs in them ; 

 but we are simply told that he confined her for thirty-five 

 days, at the same time, by his own showing, she was so 

 confined that she could leave the hive whenever she pleased. 

 This experiment, therefore, of Huber, in regard to the 

 retarded fecundation of the queen, and the vaunted dis- 

 coveries consequent thereupon, literally go for nothing. We 

 are supposed further to infer from the deductions of Huber, 

 that during the whole period of the incarceration of the 

 queen, the process of breeding was entirely suspended, and 

 that if she had not obtained her liberty, no eggs would have 

 been laid in the hive. Huber admits that she begins to 

 oviposit forty-six hours after her impregnation, but then it 

 is the eggs that are fecundated, and not her ovarium. Are 

 we thence privileged to infer, that if she had not been 

 fecundated, those eggs would not have been laid, or that 

 they would have dropped from her body abortive ? In 

 contradiction, however, of the statement of Huber, we 

 affirm that the queen bee begins to lay her eggs as soon 

 as there is a cell ready to receive them, and which is 

 generally the case in twelve hours after the swarm has 

 been settled in the hive, and certainly previously to her 

 ever having left the hive for any purpose whatever. 



To those who are the least acquainted with the internal 

 economy of a hive, the following statement of Huber wiU 

 be read with every token of surprise. During the whole 

 of our experience, added to that of several individuals, 

 celebrated for the depth and correctness of their researches 



