Editing Beekeeping (section)

=== Scientific study of honey bees ===

European natural philosophers began to scientifically study bee colonies in the 18th century. Eminent among these scientists were [[Swammerdam]], [[René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur]], [[Charles Bonnet]] and [[François Huber]]. Swammerdam and Réaumur were among the first to use a microscope and dissection to understand the internal biology of honey bees. Réaumur was among the first to construct a glass-walled observation hive to better observe activities inside hives. He observed queens laying eggs in open cells but did not know how queens were fertilized; the mating of a queen and [[Drone (bee)|drone]] had not yet been observed and many theories held queens were "[[parthenogenesis|self-fertile]]" while others believed a vapor or "miasma" emanating from the drones fertilized queens without physical contact. Huber was the first to prove by observation and experiment that drones physically inseminate queens outside the confines of the hive, usually a great distance away.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book|last=Reuber|first=Brant|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HGDxCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA26|title=21st Century Homestead: Beekeeping|year=2015|publisher=Lulu.com|isbn=978-1-312-93733-8|page=26|language=en}}</ref>

Following Réaumur's design, Huber built improved glass-walled observation hives and sectional hives that could be opened like the leaves of a book. This allowed the inspection of individual wax combs and greatly improved direct observation of hive activity. Although he went blind before he was twenty, Huber employed a secretary named François Burnens to make daily observations, conduct experiment and keep accurate notes for more than twenty years. Huber confirmed a hive consists of one queen, who is the mother of every [[Worker bee|female worker]] and male drone in the colony. He was also the first to confirm mating with drones takes place outside hives and that queens are inseminated in successive matings with male drones, which occur high in the air at a great distance from the hive. Together, Huber and Burnens dissected bees under the microscope, and were among the first to describe the [[ovary|ovaries]] and [[spermatheca]] (sperm store) of queens, as well as the penis of male drones. Huber is regarded as "the father of modern bee-science" and his work ''Nouvelles Observations sur Les Abeilles'' (New Observations on Bees)<ref name="Huber1814">{{cite book|author=François Huber|title=Nouvelles observations sur les abeilles|url=https://archive.org/details/nouvellesobserv00hubegoog|access-date=27 March 2014|year=1814|publisher=Chez J. J. Paschoud, ... et a Geneve}}</ref> revealed all of the basic scientific facts of the biology and ecology of honeybees.<ref name=":5"/>