THE INHABITANTS OF THE HIVE 45 



THE LAYING WORKER 



When the colony is queenless, worker bees may 

 develop the ability to lay eggs. As they have never 

 mated, they lay unfertilised eggs, which develop into 

 drones, and thus stock the hive with these royal 

 cumberers of the commune. It is interesting to note 

 the difference in prejudices that obtain in the hive 

 and in human society. In the latter we regard it 

 as scandalous when the female, avoiding the duties 

 of motherhood, goes abroad gathering honey and 

 pollen at her own sweet will; but in bee society it is 

 not merely a scandal, but a misfortune, when the 

 worker bee has ambitions to be a mother. The lay- 

 ing worker is a bee gone wrong and a menace -to the 

 colony. At the same time she is a nuisance to the 

 bee-keeper and great may be his tribulation before 

 he is rid of her. As might be expected, she does not 

 do her work well; she usually does not lay her eggs 

 in regular order, as does the queen, but scatters 

 them here and there and everywhere, and is quite 

 likely to fasten them to the sides of the cells, instead 

 of to the bottom. She lays her eggs sometimes 

 several together in worker as well as in drone cells. 



As a laying worker looks like any other worker, 

 it is useless to try to find her. However, her presence 

 may be detected by the irregular appearance of the 

 brood, and especially by the high drone caps on the 

 worker cells and, finally, by a superabundance of 

 drones. To meet this difficulty, an ounce of preven- 

 tion is worth several pounds of cure, and great care 



