64 CLASSIFICATION, PHYSIOLOGY, ETC. 



case in swarming. This playing indicates a healthy 

 and prosperous condition, and frequently precedes 

 the issuance of a swarm. 



DRONE-LAYING QUEEN. 



It sometimes happens that the young queen is una- 

 ble to fly out, on account of bad weather or defective 

 wings ; consequently she fails to become impregnat- 

 ed, (at the only time probably that' it can take place, 

 viz : within twenty-one days of her birth) which usu- 

 ally takes place on the wing. She, however, lays 

 eggs, which only produce drones ;* which being laid 

 in worker cells, their character is not easily determ- 

 ined until sealed up. The only indication from the 

 eggs is, that a portion of them appear deficient in 

 size, being only the covering without the substance. 

 After they are sealed up, or nearly so, it is easily 

 detected ; there being but a part of the cells occu- 

 pied, the comb presents an unusual appearance, being 

 in irregular rows and clumps. These cells are raised 

 and oval, being lengthened out and enlarged, to 

 accommodate this unnatural production. (See plate 

 n, fig. 21.) Drones so raised are dwarfs, being but 

 little more than half the size of the drones proper, and 

 are short lived. A hive possessing a drone-laying 

 queen is soon depopulated, and falls a prey to robbers. 



* Bee-keepers, even from the time of Aristotle, had observed 

 that all the brood in a hive were occasionally drones. Langstroth. 



