QUEEN ORGANS. 
141 
Moufet (ill) in 1634, first advanced the idea that 
fecundation took place in the air, which has since 
been confirmed by Huber and others. The queen 
usually leaves the hive for impregnation from the third 
to the fifth day after leaving her cell. Berlepsch (3) 
says he has never known a queen to be impregnated 
earlier than the third day, although impregnation may 
be delayed considerably beyond the fifth day, more 
especially if the weather be cold. If delayed beyond 
the twenty-first day, she lays, as Huber (68) observed, 
only eggs that produce drones, although Berlepsch and 
Dzierzon found that occasionally exceptions occur, and 
that a queen in such cases becomes properly impreg- 
nated at thirty days, and in one case forty-seven days. 
Generally the flight takes place during the finest hours 
of the day, between twelve and four o’clock in the 
afternoon. Seldom later, and yet more seldom earlier. 
Before she flies for impregnation the bees take no 
notice of the queen, and do not even feed her, nor 
does she take any notice of the workers. The drones 
are also quiet. The time she stays out varies from 
three to ten minutes, but it is sometimes reduced to 
only one minute, and may be extended to forty-five 
minutes. When she returns to the hive after having 
mated successfully, she never leaves it again, except 
with a swarm, and is able henceforth to lay eggs which 
will produce either females or males, a fact which 
puzzled Huber and others. She begins to lay eggs 
usually about forty-eight hours after impregnation. 
If from some cause she does not find a mate 
within the proper time, she is still able to lay eggs, 
