206 THE GARDENER. [May 



her the greatest homage; and they continually- touch her with their 

 antennae, as if caressing her, as she moves over the comb depositing 

 eggs, which, unless the hive is by some means rendered queenless, 

 must become either working bees or drones. The cells in which the 

 eggs are deposited are of two sizes, the smaller ones called worker- 

 cells, and the larger drone-cells ; and eggs deposited in these cells 

 become working bees or drones, as the case may be. Why is this 1 The 

 eggs of a fertile laying queen, in passing from the ovarium to the vulva, 

 pass a little sac or bag called the spermatheca, containing a fluid 

 acquired from a drone bee during the queen's flight abroad, the most 

 infinitesimal portion of which, coming into contact with the egg in its 

 passage, changes the nature of it so marvellously, that that which, 

 under all other conditions of life, must have become a drone or male 

 bee, becomes a working bee destitute of sex. And thus it occurs, when 

 depositing eggs in the cells respectively, that in a small or worker cell 

 the body of the queen, by the effort made, is slightly pressed by 

 the sides of the cell in which she deposits her egg, and sufficient of 

 the spermatheca is forced into contact with the egg to cause the 

 great change just described. If, on the other hand, the egg is 

 deposited in a large or drone cell, there will be no pressure on the 

 queen's body from the sides of the cell and the egg will thus escape 

 the influence of the fluid in the spermatheca, and this deposit issues 

 in a drone or male bee. If, however, by any chance, an egg from a 

 fertile queen is deposited in a worker-cell, without having been brought 

 into contact with the fluid in the spermatheca, the working bees, know- 

 ing a drone will result, will elongate that particular cell to give more 

 room to its inhabitant; and although it will become a drone, it will 

 only be a very little larger than a worker-bee. 



There are many ways by which the return of a young queen to her 

 hive may be prevented. She may be tempted by the glorious prospect 

 before her to extend her flight beyond the limits of prudence, and may 

 fall from exhaustion ; a bird may devour her ; she may return to a 

 wrong hive and perish there ; a cold wind may chill her, or a shower 

 of rain beat her to the earth ; or she may perish by other means ; and 

 it is because this so often happens that old stocks from which good 

 swarms have issued in spring often die away in the ensuing summer ; 

 and this is another reason why second swarms are often not worth 

 keeping. 



In the case of bees in the straw skep, the loss of a queen is not so 

 easily determined by actual observation, as the combs are not movable ; 

 and only when it is too late to provide a remedy does the calamity 

 become apparent. The presence or absence of a queen in a hive may 

 always be tested by the insertion of a queen- cell from another hive, 



