130 THE BEE-KEEPER'S GUIDE ; 



5,000 worker-bees to weigh a pound. Prof. W. R. Lazenby 

 found the weight of a worker to be .0799 grams, a load of 

 honey weighed .043 grams. This is maximum. The average 

 is .022 grams ; a load of pollen, weighs .006 grams. Prof. 

 Lazenby is probably correct in the assertion that usually only 

 honey or pollen is carried by the bees ; but I have repeatedly 

 known of bees carrying both honey and pollen at the same 

 time. 



The workers — as taught by Schirach, and proved by Mile. 

 Jurine, of Geneva, Switzerland, who, at the request of Huber, 

 sought for and found, by aid of her microscope, the abortive 



Fig. 52. Fig. S3. 



Ovaries of Worker-Bee, from Ovaries of Laying- Worker, from 



Leuckart. Leuckart. 



ovaries (Fig. 52) are undeveloped females. Rarely, and prob- 

 ably very rarely except when a colony is long or often queen- 

 less, as is frequently true of our nuclei, these bees are so far 

 developed as to produce eggs, which, of course, would always 

 be drone-eggs. Such workers — known as "•.fertile " — were 

 first noticed by Riem, while Huber saw one in the act of tg^- 

 aying. Paul L. Viallon and others have seen the same thing 

 often. Several laying workers, sent me by Mr. Viallon, were 

 examined, and the eggs and ovaries (Fig. 53) were plainly 

 visible. Leuckart found, as seen in the figure, the rudiment 

 of the spermatheca in both the common and the laying worker. 

 Except in the power to produce eggs, they seem not unlike the 

 other workers. Huber supposed that these were reared in cells 

 contiguous to royal cells, and thus received royal food by 



