EXTRACTS —NATURAL HISTORY. 
87 
the other hand, a hive seldom throws off more than two swarms, consequently this 
surplus of Queens must by some means be destroyed by the bees. It was there¬ 
fore suggested to take the supernumary queens from the hive, and by giving to 
each a proportionate number of subjects, a corresponding number of artificial 
hives might be formed, which under auspicious circumstances, would obtain suffi¬ 
cient strength and food for winter. Another method was subsequently adopted, 
which consisted in extracting from a prolific hive a certain portion of comb filled 
with eggs and larvae; and having fastened it in another hive, then to introduce a 
number of common bees, who proceeded in the regular way to nourish the brood 
and to create for themselves a Queen. This plan soon fell into desuetude, from 
the extreme rarity of its success, and the positively injurious effects which it pro¬ 
duced on the parent hive, by the frequent drains of its population. Schirach, 
was a strenuous advocate for this presumed power of the common bee, and he 
says that it is merely necessary that an egg should be in the comb, as the bees 
themselves possess the astonishing power of converting it, by a process known 
only to themselves, into a Queen Bee. Bonner was originally one of the 
staunchest adherents of Schirach; but the result of his experiments by no means 
established satisfactorily to himself the validity of the hypothesis. 
Schirach’s s} r stem was as follows : That the hive consists of three kinds of 
bees. First, the Queen; second, the Drones, being the males; and thirdly a 
middle sex, the Working bees, which possess a greater affinity to the female than 
the male sex; which, however, are destitute of any procreating power, nor do 
they possess any influence in the multiplication of their species. It was a part of 
his system, that in the liquid nature of an egg, the parts which belonged to the 
Queen Bee lay concealed in imperceptible minuteness ; but that as soon as they 
received the necessary space for their expansion, an increase took place in their 
size, and the developement of the parts gradually proceeded, until the Queen 
finally attained her full magnitude and beauty; for he affirmed that every egg 
that would produce a working bee, if it remained in the small cell till its maturity, 
and was nourished in the usual manner, a queen would always arise, if the bees 
gave to such an egg an enlargement of the cell, in which the worm and the 
nymph could properly extend themselves; providing such worm or nymph was 
provided with richer food, and in greater profusion. Finally, he declared the 
working bees to be all virgins, devoted to perpetual chastity. The following, 
therefore, may be taken as his system:— 
1 
The Queen 
Drones Working Bees 
a b 
Fruitful Unfruitful 
I 
4 
Drones. 
This system, however, met with very great opposition, for the very circum¬ 
stance of the alleged existence of a fruitful common bee never procreating, nor 
producing any of its species, threw the whole system into disrepute, and at once 
