THE BEE FAMILY 



It is a remarkable fact that the drone is pro- 

 duced from an unimpregnated egg, and even 

 to this day there are many who doubt it, but 

 careful experiments have proved it to be true. 

 A microscopical examination of the eggs for 

 worker bees reveals the fact that spermatozoa 

 are always present in numbers of from one 

 to five, but in the case of the drone egg, none 

 are present. This fact is further proved when 

 we find that laying workers incapable of 

 mating will also produce drones, though such 

 drones are much smaller in size than those 

 produced by a queen. It may be that the size 

 of the drone reared from the egg of a laying 

 worker is influenced by its being laid in a 

 worker cell. 



Having no stings, nor suitable proboscis 

 with which to gather honey, nor baskets on 

 their legs to gather and carry pollen, nor wax 

 scales with which to secrete wax, nature has 

 restricted them to their sole function in the 

 hive; namely, the fecundation of the virgin 

 queens. 



53 



