Although men have kept bees for at least three thousand years, understanding of the mating habits is of comparatively recent discovery. The blind naturalist, Francis Huber, who made so many discoveries concerning the habits of these insects, is credited generally with the first publication of the facts concerning the mating of the queen and the drone. In his book, New Observations on Bees, he describes in detail his method of observation and how he came, at last, to understand what really happened. He failed to observe the actual meeting of the sexes, but established definite proof that the mating took place outside the hive.

When the facts were made known to his correspondent, Bonnet, the suggestion was made in reply that he try to secure fertilization by the introduction of the sperm of the male into the body of the queen by means of a hair pencil. He also suggested the placing of a hive in a room with a very high ceiling, to permit the queen and drones to fly under conditions which would permit direct observation. To repeat the experiment of Reaumur, who confined a queen with several males in a glass sand box, was also considered. It was thought that if a glass tube several inches in diameter and several feet long was used, something decisive might be observed.

Such methods quite naturally suggested themselves as soon as it was discovered that the queens left the hive for the normal mating. In early editions of his book, Langstroth calls attention in a footnote to the fact that Jansha had learned that the queens leave the hive for mating, prior to the time of Huber's discovery. New discoveries are thus often made independently by two or more observers, under widely separated conditions.

Regardless of the person to whom should go the credit for first discovery of the behavior of queens in mating, it did not become common knowledge prior to Huber's time. Once understood, the search for controlled mating began and was the object of fruitless effort for more than a century before a really practical method was developed. The numerous efforts in that direction offer an interesting field of investigation. The old bee magazines contain numerous claims which, in the light of present knowledge, seem preposterous, but they received serious attention at the time.

In the American Bee Journal, July, 1868, appeared an advertisement by Adam Grimm stating that the Kohler process of getting queens impregnated by drones of certain hives was known to him, and he offered such queens at ten dollars each. In the August issue of the same magazine, this Kohler process is described. It was a simple plan with a degree of merit, although by no means certain in its results. He placed the virgin queens and also a hive containing the selected drones in a cool cellar for several days. On a warm day, watch was kept to see when the unconfined drones stopped their flight. Afterward, the hives containing the young queens to be mated and the drones to be used were brought into the open air. Some diluted honey was then fed to the colony and the bees released. Wearied by the long confinement and excited by the food, they rushed into the air and mating followed.

In the same issue is published the Kruger method, which is essentially the same. Others reported success also by the same procedure with slight modification. It was claimed to be valuable where Italian stock was wished kept pure in localities where black bees were common.

In King's Beekeeper's Textbook, published in 1878, he states that Mrs. Tupper had been successful with artificial fertilization. No details are given, but in another place he speaks of it as though fertilization was secured in confinement, as demonstrated by Hasbrouck. Since Mrs. Tupper was then credited with being the first to announce success in this field, it is important that her results, if any, be verified.

In the Illustrated Bee Journal, October, 1870, Mrs. Tupper's plan for securing the fertilization of young queens by selected drones was described in detail. She used a wire cloth cage called a "fertilizer, " in which the queen was confined with several drones above the frames of the hive in which the queen belonged. The writer, L. C. Waite, testified to the fact that he had had over a hundred queens successfully mated by that method that season. There is nothing to indicate that Mrs. Tupper later had anything more substantial to offer, or that any degree of success attended her efforts.

In November, 1878, in the American Bee Journal, Hasbrouck wrote at length concerning his method, which he said was similar to one described in The Beekeepers' Journal and National Agriculturist in 1871. He had his queens emerge in nursery cages in which cells were placed just prior to time of emergence. When the young queen was four days old he took a fertilizing box about three inches deep and with a glass top, in which he confined a selected drone. He then permitted the queen to enter the box through a slide. Although Hasbrouck reported success in this and later issues, others were skeptical.

Mating in confinement was generally accepted over a period of several years. In Moon's Bee World, 1874, A. N. Draper, of Upper Alton, Illinois, advertised queens fertilized in confinement and tested. It is probable that many such cases were reported sincerely, and that the beekeeper was misled due to the fact that the queen left the hive on her mating trip soon after her release from the cage. The owner, finding eggs and brood in due time, was convinced that his experiment had been a success.

In the American Beekeepers' Guide, by E. Kretchmer, which appears to have been published in 1872, the statement is made, "That queens can be fertilized in confinement has been demonstrated by many beemen. " He states that he has secured such fertilization in numerous cases, but that results varied so greatly by various methods tried that he could not call it a success. This indicates that Kretchmer, like others, had been misled into thinking that queens which found their mates in the usual way after their release, had been fertilized in confinement. He described the most successful method as follows: