IMPREGNATION OF THE QUEEN-BEE.

Notwithstanding the most persevering attention of Huber and of other ingenious apiarians, and notwithstanding the experiments and expedients had recourse to, to discover the secret, it is still doubtful—it is still undiscovered, in what precise way the Queen-Bee becomes impregnated. No one has ever yet witnessed the fact of her copulation with a drone, either in the hive or elsewhere,—in all probability no one ever will be witness to it; consequently the contradictory conclusions apiarians have come to on this subject are unsatisfactory, because unsupported by sufficient and convincing proofs. Huber, after having made a variety of observations and tried numberless experiments to get at the fact, gives it as his opinion—that the impregnation of the Queen is accomplished by her intercourse with the drone during a flight in the open atmosphere; but modestly states that he never witnessed the act of copulation. On this last point I entirely coincide with him, and firmly believe that no man ever yet has been present to confirm the supposed fact; neither can any person deny the possibility—not to say—the probability of such an union. On the other hand, Mr. Huish is an advocate for the drones in another way, stating them to be the male Bees, and that they fecundate—not the Queen, but all the eggs of the Queen, produced by her, the year in which the drones are brought into existence. But Mr. Huish has nowhere stated, in his much admired treatise on Bees, what fecundates those eggs of the Queen which are produced by her in the absence of the drones. It is well-known that those eggs do well and come to perfection, long after the drones have ceased to exist in the hive. Eggs are laid and matured into Bees when there is not one drone in the hive. This, therefore, is an argument in favour of Mr. Huber's opinion—namely—that the Queen once impregnated remains so during her life,—and that, as the Queen lives some years, the drones are called into being to fecundate the young Queens, brought into existence for purposes that will be noticed in the next chapter. Neither should we overlook the singular services of the short-lived drones in other circumstances of the colony; for most essential is their presence in the hive during the months of May, June, and July. Do we not in those months behold the extraordinary rapidity with which the working Bees leave their hive in search of materials for their various works? So indefatigable are these admired insects, after enriching their commonwealth, that in the time of honey-dews, scarcely a mechanical labourer is left in the hive. Now, were it not for the drones—those large bodied Bees—what would become of the young larvÆ then in existence? It would undoubtedly perish. No sooner, however, is this busy season at an end, than the total destruction of the drones takes place; but not until the animal heat which the drones impart to the hive has accelerated the production of the young Bees, and added thousands of them to the mother hive.

It is not possible that the drones can influence the impregnation of the Queen's eggs, particularly those eggs which are produced after the total destruction of the drones, which generally takes place in August, and sometimes in the latter end of July. These later eggs are hatched, and brought to a state of perfection by the crowded population of the hive at that period: for a sufficient number of common Bees, that is—a well-populated hive, will always bring to perfection the Queen's eggs that have been deposited in the cells, after the total destruction of the drones. This seems to prove, that there is some probable truth in Huber's opinion respecting the agency of the drones in the procreation of Bees, by their sexual union with the Queen. Though I was once inclined to differ in opinion with Huber on this subject, and even went so far as to venture to say with Huish, and in Huish's own words—that the Queen knows not coition, and that she is both virgin and mother,[H] from what I have seen in my observatory-hive this summer (1832) I am led to doubt the accuracy of that remark, and am disposed to lean to Huber's doctrine, and to think, that there may be more truth in his experiments than has hitherto been awarded to them: in short, I see no objection to Huber's theory, although there is no direct proof of the copulation of the Queens with the drones. All apiarians allow that there are male and female in a hive or stock of Bees;—all admit—indeed, it is impossible to deny—-that Bees do increase and multiply at a prodigious rate, and so fulfil the Divine injunction; the only question to be solved is this—How is the Queen-Bee impregnated? This secret in nature—if those matters, or natural operations which we cannot clearly explain, which, though in themselves sensible and gross, may, nevertheless, be too subtile, too refined, for our obtuse understandings to comprehend, and for our dull faculties to investigate,—if these may be called secrets in nature, there is a secret of this description respecting the sexual union of Queen and drone Bees, or, at any rate, respecting the manner of the impregnation of the Queen-Bee. I condemn no man who differs from me on this nice subject, as I have no direct proof, either that Huber is right, or that Huish is wrong, in their surmises relative to this disputable matter. Individually they are men deserving the highest respect; their labours and perseverance to throw light upon this mystic branch of apiarian science deserve the utmost praise; as also do the labours of the learned and ingenious Dr. Bevan, whose treatise on Bees I have read with much pleasure; and have occasionally referred to, and shall again make use of it, in this my humble attempt. We have all exerted our best abilities to become the favourites of our patrons and friends. How much each of us deserves the honours conferred on us, is best known to those who have been most benefited by our unceasing endeavours to improve and extend apiarian science. My great object is—not to dispute with the naturalist, the philosopher, or with the apiarian, how the Queen-Bee becomes impregnated: because, be that as it may, it is, no doubt, consistent with the law of nature,—it is, no doubt, a part of that all-prevailing law; and though hitherto undiscovered,—hitherto "one of nature's gambols with the human mind," I do cherish strong hopes that the observatory-hive I have constructed, will on some auspicious, future day, disclose such facts as will set the matter at rest for ever: my great object at present is—to endeavour to improve the culture of Honey-Bees, and to lay before my readers practical instructions for the more humane, and more profitable management of those interesting, little insects.