Copulation of the Queen Bee

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Section eleven of The American Bee Journal, Volume one, number three,
March eighteen sixty one. This is a LibriVox recording. All
LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Read by
Quartertone the American Bee Journal, Volume one, number three, March

(00:23):
eighteen sixty one, by Varius, Section eleven. Copulation of the
Queen Bee Yansha, Huber and Jerzon, relying on evidence entirely
satisfactory to themselves, concurred in the conviction that the fecundation
of queen bees is effected by the drones on the
wing and in the open air, though neither of them

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ever actually witnessed the concourse of queen and drone. Many
German apiarians have four years passed been vigilant observers in
the hope of obtaining ocular demonstration of the fact. But
so how unsuccessful have they been, that one of them
said of it despondingly a short time ago. Human eyes

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have never beheld it, and probably never will. In January
eighteen sixty the bean Enzeitung contained an account of what
came under the notice of mister Hannemann, then of Wattenburg
and Tunguria, but now of Rio de Grand de Sol
in Brazil, where he established a large apiary and made
an ample fortune by bee culture. After stating that on

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the sixth of July eighteen forty nine, several swarms issued
from his stocks and were hived, he adds when the
swarms had been placed in the apiary and the bees
commenced flying, I was anxious to watch them closely, but
found it impracticable, as I had then about one hundred
fifty colonies, many of which had become so irritated by

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my operations that it was unsafe to approach them. The
wind was from the west, and a few fleecy clouds
floated in the atmosphere. While sitting in the shade of
a tree about thirty paces from the apiary, my attention
was attracted by an unusually loud humming. Suddenly I saw
some twenty or thirty drones in rapid pursuit of a

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queen bee, at an elevation of twenty five or thirty
feet from the ground. The cluster occupied a space apparently
two feet in diameter, and in their course sometimes sunk
to within ten feet of the ground, and then rose again,
passing from north to south. I followed them about one
hundred paces, and then lost sight of them behind an

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intervening building. While they were thus pursuing the queen, the
cluster presented this appearance except when it approached the ground.
Then the mass became more condensed and circular, closing together
so thickly that they seemed almost to touch each other
as they flew, appearing thus before they vanished from my sight,

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the queen made her escape from among the encircling drones
by a sudden turn, and I saw her distinctly shooting
ahead and rising higher in the air, the drones in
full pursuit, the whole resembling this figure. This spectacle was corroborative,
but not demonstrative, and this is the nearest approach any

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of the German apiarians have yet made towards obtaining an
ocular solution of the problem. American observers have been more
successful and may now claim the palm which their German
brethren failed to secure. In the spring of eighteen fifty seven,
mister Lewis Shrimplin of Wellsboro, Virginia enabled himself to obtain
a distinct view of the pursuit of the queen by

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the drones by catching one as she issued from her
hive and attaching a fine silk thread to one of
her thighs. When again permitted to fly, she began to
rise in the air, and he saw the drones collect
in large numbers and follow in pursuit. This precisely confirmed
the statement made by mister Hanneman, and furnished the additional

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fact that the queen, on her return, was found to
bear the evidence of fecundation. The Reverend mister Millette of
White Marsh, Pennsylvania, was more fortunate and appears to have
been the first who witnessed an actual encounter. The following
communication from his pen, which we copy from the Farmer
and Gardener for November eighteen fifty nine, settles the important

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fact as it came under his observation in the preceding
summer Drone and Queen Bee. Important fact. There is no
department in natural history where there is so much room
for doubt and skepticism as in the study of the honeybee.
And the reason is obvious. There is so much that
is really wonderful and at the same time true. Until

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late years such has been the construction of the hive,
that its internal economy has been hidden to the eye
of man, and all the phenomena of bee life has
been left to conjecture. The following fact occurred under the
writer's own observation, and is put on record in order
that the others interested in bee keeping may be led
to give their experience in the matter of the queen's impregnation,

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if any facts have come before them. In the month
of June, an old stalk threw off a second swarm,
in which there were four queens. During the process of hiving,
one of the queens was observed on the wing, and
in a moment after was seized by a drone. After
flying about a rod, they both came to the ground

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in close contact. The writer instantly followed them up, and
as the drone was about departing, having broken loose, seized
both the bees, the queen in one hand and the
drone in the other. They were taken into the house
and left at liberty to fly when the queen flew
to the closed window, but the drone, after crawling about
on the hand, was laid upon the window seat, and

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in a very few minutes expired Both the queen and
the drone had a white, milky fluid upon the extremity
of the abdomen, and upon pressing the drone there was
no indication of his possessing the speciality of his sex.
One fact will not establish a theory, but when many
can testify in the same direction, it forms a galaxy

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of evidence which cannot be refuted. It is Huber's idea
that the queens and drones meet in the air, and
it has occurred to the writer as well worthy of
experiment to collect a number of drones and let them
fly with the virgin queen in a high room, and
thus endeavor to verify this fact so emphatically laid down
by Huber. To this we append the following extract of

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a letter from mister S. B. Parsons of Flushing, New York,
confirmatory of all that was conjecture before. We may remark
that the observers in this instance also are men whose
statements may be implicitly relied on, and so familiar with bees,
that all doubt as to the possibility that they may
themselves have been mistaken is entirely precluded. Mister Parsons says,

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one fact in our last summer's experience will interest the
readers of the journal. The copulation of an Italian drone
and queen upon the wing was witnessed in my apiary
by mister Carey and mister Otis. They saw the queen
issue from the hive and circle round when a drone
struck her. Both being upon the wing, A sharp snap ensued.

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The drone fell to the ground and was picked up dead.
The queen fell in the grass, rose again and entered
the hive. Mister Carey soon searched for her, found the
workers cleaning her off and the male organs attached to
her body. This settles definitively what Yancha and Huber believed
without ocular evidence. I am not aware that the actual

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copulation has been seen before. Since the foregoing was prepared,
we have received the following, more detailed account of mister
Carey's observations, as communicated by him to a mutual friend,
which we hasten to submit to our readers. Copulation of
a queen and drone actually seen. Although the copulation of

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the queen and drone undoubtedly take place while they are
on the wing, it will interest many to know that
it has at last been seen The following is the
substance of a letter addressed to me by mister William W.
Carey of Colerain, Massachusetts. Mister Carey has had much experience
in the management of bees, and was engaged last summer

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in propagating Italian queens for mister S. B. Parsons of Flushing,
Long Island. He says, about three o'clock p m. On
the eighth of July, I saw a young Italian queen
enter her hive without any signs of impregnation. She came
out again in a few minutes, and I closed the
entrance to the hive. During her absence, which lasted thirteen minutes,

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three drones came in front of the hive, and, finding
the entrance closed, kept on the wing most of the time.
When the returning queen was about three feet from the entrance,
one of the drones very rapidly flew to her, and
clasping his legs about her, caused both to settle a
little and to come in contact with a long spear
of grass. At the same time, an explosion was distinctly heard,

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and they immediately separated, the drone falling to the ground
perfectly dead and having his abdomen very much contracted. The queen,
after making a few circles in the air, entered the
hive with the male organ of the drone attached to her.
All these facts were witnessed by myself and mister R.
C Otis of Kenosha, Wisconsin, as we were seated on

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opposite sides of the hive, not more than six feet apart,
so that there can be no possible ground of mistake.
Professor Sebold, in his work on parthenogenesis, says as in
the act of copulation, the penis of a drone is
completely extruded outwards, and as no particular muscular apparatus exists
for the extrusion of the penis, the circumstance that the

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drones copulate in flight has an important signification. During the
movement of the wings, the different air sacks of the
tracheosystem of the drones are f filled with air, by
which means these can act by pressure in the interior
of the body of the drone upon the neighboring penis,
which is to be protruded. On page one twenty five

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of Langstroth on the hive and honeybee, it is mentioned
that while a drone is held in the hand, its
male organ may often be made to extrude with a
motion very like the popping of a roasted popcorn. In
every such case, the drone perishes instantaneously, but its penis
remains so firmly attached to the abdomen that it has
been difficult to conceive how it can be detached in

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the act of copulation. The explosion so distinctly heard by
the two observers shows that the filling of the different
air sacks while the drone is on the wing, detaches
the penis l l L. It is exceedingly gratifying to
us that the American Bee Journal, at this very early

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stage of its existence, is thus distinguished as the medium
of decisive information on one of the most interesting, as
well as most controverted points in the natural history of
the bee. We have long believed that when once the
physiology and habits of this admirable insect are made subjects
of earnest and persevering study in this country, the many

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obscurities which have so long perplexed observers, will be satisfactorily elucidated,
and the instances here given of success under circumstances not
more favorable than those by which Europeans have for years
been surrounded, are well calculated to strengthen our faith and
induce us to look for other cheering results. According to

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an official census taken in eighteen fifty three, there were
then in the Kingdom of hanover two hundred and eighteen thousand,
eight hundred and sixty five colonies of bees. The Reverend
mister Klein thinks that at a moderate estimate, the country
could support at least ten times that number. Bees never
store pollen in drone cells. End of Section eleven.