116 THE PRACTICAL. BEE GUIDB. 



of eggs (Fig. II, C). Huber supposed that these laying workers 

 were the produce of eggs deposited in cells adjacent to queen 

 cells, and that they had received a smaller quantity of royal jelly. 

 Possibly they are either workers which, in the early stage of 

 development, were not weaned until after the third day, and 

 whose organs have been partially developed by reason of the 

 excess allowance of the richer food which they have received ; 

 or, workers which, in the larval state, were, at an age over three 

 days, selected for special treatment by a queenless colony, and 

 thus, in the earlier stages of the larval growth, were deprived 

 of the liberal treatment necessary for the production of 

 perfect queens (197). It is very rarely that a laying worker 

 is tolerated in a colony which has a prolific queen. But, 

 in colonies which are queenless, and which have neither 

 eggs nor young larvae from which to raise queens, 

 laying workers are occasionally found, and sometimes in large 

 numbers. Their eggs, being unimpregnated, produce drones 

 only. Their presence in a hive is indicated by the irregular 

 manner in which their eggs are deposited, several being fre- 

 quently found in one cell, and cells with eggs appearing side 

 by side with cells containing drone larvje, whereas a fertile 

 queen lays her eggs very regularly, as shown above. (Fig. 

 77. page 103). 



201. Removing Laying Workers. — Laying workers must be 

 got rid of, or the colony must perish. If a comb containing 

 eggs from another hive be given to the colony, and if the 

 bees can be induced to raise a queen, or queens, from those 

 eggs, the laying workers will be destroyed so soon as a young 

 queen begins to lay in the hive. But, where a laying worker 

 has been in possession for some time, the bees of the colony 

 are often indisposed to rear a queen from eggs supplied to 

 them, and will refuse to do so while the laying worker remains 

 in the hive. This difficulty may sometimes be overcome by 

 altering the position of the hive for a few days ; then remov- 

 ing all the bees, carrying them to a distance of 100 or 200 

 yards, and shaking them down there upon a sheet or board ; 

 when, the laying workers, unfamiliar with the new position 

 of the hive, will fail to find it, while the other bees, except the 

 useless young drones, will return to the hive, and will raise 

 a queen from eggs supplied to them. Beside the fact that 

 a colony long queenless will be short of, and perhaps destitute 

 of nurse bees, this remedy entails a loss of some weeks before 

 the young queen can begin laying, and of over two months 

 before her progeny can supply the place of the dwindling 

 workers of the colony; and it can be adopted (so far as queen 

 rearing is concerned) only when there are drones flying to 

 fertilise the young queen. The speediest, and the best remedy 



