26 THE HONEY-BEE. 



the power of laying which of the two kinds of eggs 

 she pleases. The essential difference between the 

 two seems to be, that those which will become drones 

 are not fertilised by spermatozoa just previous to 

 leaving the oviduct, while the worker-eggs are thus 

 specially vivified, and the operation appears to be 

 under volitional control. 



A further remarkable circumstance is that the rate 

 of egg-laying is also a matter of determination, and 

 not of necessity, on the part of the queen ; for when 

 a transfer has been made from a weak to a strong 

 hive, the number of eggs deposited has been known 

 to vary, within two days, from none to two thousand 

 in twenty- four hours. In the one case the mother- 

 bee knew her colony was not strong enough to keep 

 up the requisite warmth for hatching and developing 

 her progeny ; in the other, she proceeded vigorously 

 with her functions, the further progress of the young 

 being secured by the abundance of the population 

 sufficing to keep up the proper temperature, and to 

 render all needed attention to the larvae in their 

 further development. 



The ordinary rate of laying, under favourable 

 conditions, varies from 600 to 800 eggs a day ; but, 

 under pressure of specially suitable conditions, from 

 i,OOO to 1,200 are not unfrequently deposited. 

 Langstroth and Von Berlepsch have seen six laid in 

 a minute ; and the latter observer, on supplying a 

 queen with some new empty comb, found after 

 twenty-four hours more than 3,000 eggs had been 

 laid. If this queen on the average got rid of five 

 eggs per minute, the total number just mentioned 

 would have been deposited in ten hours, so that she 



