io8 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 



seems hurried, and yet in the height of the breed- 

 ing season it must go on at an extraordinary pace. 

 It is well attested that a good queen will thus 

 furnish as many as two thousand to three thousand 

 cells in a day, which gives an average of two eggs 

 a minute, even supposing her to keep at the work 

 without pause for the whole twenty-four hours. 



The cells designed to contain the worker-brood 

 measure one-fifth of an inch across the mouth ; 

 drone cells are larger, having a diameter of a 

 quarter- inch, as well as greater depth. The queen 

 may pass from one species of comb to the other, 

 but she seldom makes a mistake. The egg depo- 

 sited in the worker-cell hatches out a female; that 

 which is laid in the larger cell becomes a drone, or 

 male bee. Obviously the deposition of the diffe- 

 rent kinds of eggs is well under the control of the 

 queen. It will be also seen that not only does the 

 mother bee lay either male or female eggs at will, 

 but their number also is subject to her dis- 

 crimination. From the time when she begins 

 ovipositing, until she reaches her period of 

 greatest activity in early summer, the increase of 

 the colony is not regular, but goes by fits and 

 starts according to the weather, or the amount of 

 incoming food. If the new honey is steadily 

 mounting up in the storehouse, and pollen is plenti- 

 ful, the work of brood-raising will go freely ahead,* 

 but if unseasonable cold stops the work of the 

 foragers, this will immediately affect the output of 



