42 Beekeeping 



tally less highly developed than the workers and that, to 

 some degree, the workers determine the number of eggs to 

 be laid and otherwise determine the queen's activities. 



The ovaries of the queen (Fig. 92) are highly developed, as 

 is necessary for her specialized function, and because of this 

 development the abdomen is greatly elongated. Her legs 

 (Fig. 81) are not specially modified as are those of the workers 

 and the ovipositor is curved and smooth and has attached to 

 it a poison sac l and functions as a sting. Whether it also 

 assists in egg-laying is not determined. The eyes (Fig. 69) 

 are much like those of the workers, the mandibles are notched 

 and proportionately large, the head is not so elongated as 

 that of the worker and is somewhat smaller. The antennae 

 have twelve segments, like those of the worker. 



Mating normally takes place but once when the queen is 

 from five to eight days old, the time differing slightly in 

 different races and being influenced also by conditions of the 

 weather. There is reason to think that some queens mate 

 more than once, but always before laying eggs. Mating 

 never occurs in the hive but on the wing and the queen re- 

 ceives a supply of spermatozoa (male sex cells), millions in 

 number, which are stored in her spermatheca (Fig. 92) and 

 remain functional during the life of the queen or until they 

 are exhausted. Egg-laying commonly begins two days after 

 mating. The queen often lives three or four years but a few 

 exceptional cases are recorded of queens living seven years. 

 The life of the queen seems to depend somewhat on the num- 

 ber of eggs which she lays. The queen, when she fails in egg- 

 laying, is superseded by a young queen reared by the workers. 



1 On one occasion the author was stung by a virgin queen. While it 

 was doubtless his own fault, this is an experience that comes to but few 

 beekeepers. This was in the early days of his beekeeping experience and 

 that there was a poison sac at the other end of the sting was attested by a 

 goodly swelling. The queen was seemingly uninjured. This occurred in 

 the apiary of the A. I. Root Co., Medina, Ohio and, by a strange coinci- 

 dence, E. R. Root received a letter the same day from a western beekeeper 

 who had a similar experience and who considered it rare enough to be worthy 

 of publication. 



