THE HONEY-BEE. 75 



which will, probably, for ever remain inscrutable to 

 man." In the natural state of things, that is, when 

 fecundation has not been postponed, the Queen lays 

 the eggs of workers in forty-six hours after her union 

 with the male, and continues for the subsequent eleven 

 months to produce these alone, and it is only after this 

 period that a considerable laying of the eggs of drones 

 commences. These male eggs require eleven months 

 to attain to maturity, but, under the effects of retarda- 

 tion, they are matured in forty-six hours. The eggs c^ 

 workers,|which, in the usual state of things, would havi 

 been laid first, never come to light ; their vitality has 

 been destroyed by some vitiation which has taken place, 

 and the cause of which has not yet been discovered. 

 Huber, in reasoning on the subject, and contemplating 

 the difficulty attending it, declares it to be " an abyss 

 in which he is lost/' There is another circumstance 

 which he has not adverted to, and which seems to 

 increase these difficulties. He asserts that before a 

 Queen commences her great laying of male-eggs, she 

 must be eleven months old. But he acknowledges 

 that ( ' a Queen, hatched in spring, will perhaps lay 

 fifty or sixty eggs of drones in whole, during the course 

 of the ensuing summer/' * We know this to be true 

 from our own experience ; and also as the usual con- 

 sequence of this appearance of male-eggs, that the 

 Bees commence building royal cells, the Queen lays 

 in them, and swarming takes place. Now this partial 

 laying of drone-eggs takes place only in the case of 

 very early swarms ; and if the weather be unfavour- 

 * Huber, page 169. 



