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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



in sev3nty-two hours, whicb, if deposited uni- 

 formly, is at tlie rate of 1,604 per day. But t-liis 

 case cannot be regarded as settling the question, 

 because before leaving with a first swarm, the 

 queen restricts oviposition, partly to qualify 

 herself for flying, and partly from the want of 

 empty cells; and hence, when coming into a new 

 Mve, some time will be required to restore her 

 ovaries to their previous activity. Besides, as 

 in this instance, new combs had to be built, 

 there may not always have been empty cells 

 at her disposal. 



2. On the 28th of June, 1850, witli the aid of 

 my assistant, I counted all the brood in a large 

 colony. We found 38,619 cells supplied. Hence, 

 assuming twenty days as the average term re- 

 quired for the develepment of the bee, the 

 queen must have laid, on the average, 1,913 

 eggs daily. But this case also is not conclusive, 

 because the bees had to build the combs within 

 the preceding three weeks, and the queen may 

 not always have found as many empty cells in 

 readiness as she was prepared to supply with 

 eggs. 



I cite these two cases mainly to guard nov- 

 ices, who may be induced to make similar 

 investigations, against" drawing erroneous in- 

 ferences. 



3. In June, 1856, one of my stocks had so 

 striking an amount of brood tliat I resolved to 

 make another enumeration. I did not, indeed, 

 count the cells individually, but calculated the 

 contents by the number of square inches of 

 brood comb actually supplied, which the' hive 

 contained, there being fifty cells to the square 

 inch on the two sides of the comb. I thus 

 ascertained that there were at least 48,000 cells 

 stored with brood, which gives an average of 

 2,400 eggs per day. 



4. Shortly after this I introduced a new comb 

 about a foot square in a very populous hive, 

 containing a remarkably prolific queen, which 

 I had seen laying at the rate of six or seven eggs 

 per minute. I placed her gently on this comb, 

 and waited till I saw her Iny eggs in the empty 

 cells, and felt satisfied by her demeanor that 

 she would not easily surcease laying. I then 

 replaced the anterior combs and closed the hive. 

 After precisely twenty -four hours I found 3,021 

 eggs in the cells of that comb. This was a de- 

 cisive experiment. I now enumerated the en- 

 tire mass of brood then in the hive by ascertain- 

 ing the number of square inches in the occupied 

 combs, and found that at least 57,000 cells were 

 supplied, so that the queen nuut have laid 

 nearly three thousand eggs daily, on the 

 average, within the next preceding twenty 

 days. Nor need this seem surprising, for if a 

 queen lays six eggs in a minute, she v>fill lay 

 360 in an hour, and three thousand in little 

 more than eight hours, leaving her, of the twen- 

 ty-four, nearly fifteen hours for rest and re- 

 cuj^eration. 



But such enormous fertility is certainly rare, 

 and, on an average, a queen will probably not 

 lay more than 1,200 eggs a day even in a very 

 ]iopulous hive during the most genial season. 

 There is a vast difference between what a ite- 

 culiarly prolific queen may occasionally do 

 iiuder specially favorable circumstances, and 



what ah ordinarily fertile one commonly does. 

 And how frequently is a queen prevented from 

 ovipositing by the want of room. Many hives 

 during the best brooding time are so compactlj- 

 filled with honey and brood from b.ase to apex 

 that scarcely a single empty cell is to be found. 

 Here obviouslj^ the queen is constrained to re- 

 strict herself to supplying such cells as are 

 vacated by the maturing brood, and even of 

 these the Avorkers will appropriate some intjieir 

 eagerness to store up honey when fields and 

 flowers yield it superabundantly. I repeat that 

 I do not estimate the average daily deposit of 

 eggs, during the most favorable season, at more 

 than 1,200. In most hives, I am persuaded, it 

 is much smaller. 



By what is increased oviposition condi- 

 tioned ? 



1. By the personal health and vigor of the 

 queen herself. It can hardly have escaped the 

 notice of even ordinarily observant bee-keepers 

 that there is a striking difference in the fertility 

 of queens, even when they are alike young, and 

 all other circumstances are similar. In April 

 we find two colonies having queens of the same 

 age, alike in quality and equally populous. In 

 May, the one still in statu quo, the other ready 

 to swarm. 



The most remarkable example of the fertility 

 of a queen which I have ever known is the fol- 

 lowing: In the summer of 1853 1 found clustered 

 on a willow tree a very diminutive second- 

 swarm. I placed it in a hive furnished with 

 empty combs, and was astonished already in 

 the first season by the unbounded fertility of 

 the queen, and still more so when I saw her. 

 She was a perfect giantess, and remarkably 

 light-colored. In the summers of 1854, 1855, 

 1856, and 1857, she displayed the same enor- 

 mous fertility; her hive was always the most 

 populous; and it was her that laid the 3,021 

 eggs in twenty-four hours, though she was then 

 four years old. In 1857, on the 13th of June, 

 she issued with a swarm weighing seven 

 pounds. In the fall she was no longer found, 

 and her successor was much smaller. At a 

 moderate estimate this queen laid at least one 

 million three hundred thousand eggs in the 

 course of her life. 



2. By defective limbs, especially crippled 

 feet, which are particularly liable to be injured 

 in casual conflicts; and if a queen loses even 

 one of her small claws, her walk will be 

 unsteady and insecure. From fear of falling 

 she will then hesitate to advance to the lower 

 margin of the combs, and the workers finding 

 that cells remain uusupplied, will cease to 

 build. 



3. By weather, season, and plentiful supi^lies. 

 In our climate, where in May and June nature 

 wears her gayest garb, the fertility of the queen 

 reaches its culminating point. At that time, if 

 the weather is moist and warm, and honey not 

 too abundant, hives having healthy young 

 queens will be literally crammed with brood. 

 That temperature and pasturage, however, do 

 not alone conduce to the profuse production of 

 brood, but that the season also largely con- 

 tributes thereto, is manifest from this, that in 

 July, when the yield of honey surpasses that of 



