324 
IlEE. 
drawing them out. In the spring and summer 
she is more easily distinguished: the belly is not 
only thicker, but considerably longer than former- 
ly, which arises from the increase of the eggs. We 
distinguish a queen from a working bee, simply 
by size, and in some degree by colour; but this 
last is not so easily ascertained, because the differ- 
ence in the colour is not so remarkable in the 
back, and the only view we can commonly get of 
her is on this part; but when a hive is killed, the 
best way is to collect all the bees, and spread 
them on white paper, or ])ut them into water, in 
a broad, flat-bottomed, shallow, white dish, in 
which they swim; and by looking at them singly, 
she may be discovered. As the queen breeds the 
first year she is produced, and the oviducts never 
entirely subside, an old queen is probably thicker 
than a new bred one, unless indeed the oviducts, 
and the eggs, form in the chrysalis state, as in the 
silk-worm, which I should suppose they did. The 
queen is perhaps at the smallest size just as she 
has done breeding, for as she is to lay eggs by 
the month of March, she must begin early to 
fill again; but I believe her oviducts are nerer 
emptied, having at all times eggs in them, al- 
though but small. She has fat in her belly, similar 
to the other bees. 
“ It is most probable that the queen which goes 
off with the swarm is a young one, for the males 
go off with the swarm to impregnate her, as she 
must be impregnated the same year, because she 
breeds the same year. 
