THOUSAND ANSWERS 77 



cellared, she begins about the time bees are taken out of the 

 cellar. 



Q. What would you think of a queen that fills every cell in 

 most of the combs with eggs, and in numerous places has eggs 

 in half -built cells, and in cells filled with beebread? 



A. That is just what every good queen should do, except lay- 

 ing in a cell containing pollen. When you find eggs in a 

 pollen-cell you may generally count that laying workers are pres- 

 ent, although it is possible that occasionally an otherwise good 

 queen may do such a foolish thing. 



Eggs. — Q. Has the queen the power to fertilize eggs or not? 

 A. Sure. She fertilizes all but the drone-eggs. 



Q. In regard to bee-eggs, is there any difference or distinction 

 between the eggs from which a queen and worker are hatched or 

 reared? If I am correct, bee-men use any egg they may come to 

 when transferring eggs to queen-cells, and the difference results 

 from the size of cell and the material on which the young bees 

 are fed. 



A. An egg laid by a good queen in a queen-cell is precisely the 

 same as one she lays in a worker-cell. A drone-egg is a different 

 thing. A drone-egg is unfertilized and can produce nothing but 

 a drone, even if fed in a queen-cell; other eggs are fertilized. 



Q. I have only one colony of bees, in which I find many cells 

 with from 2 to 6 eggs in each. And at the front end of some of 

 the combs there are cells that seem to have 30 or 40 eggs in each. 

 I never saw anything like it before. I could not find the queen. 

 Did laying workers try to fill the cells with eggs? 



A. Almost certainly it is laying workers. You will probably 

 find that if any drone-cells are in the brood-nest the nuisances 

 have been specially favorable to them. Also, you will be likely 

 to find one or more queen-cells, and in these there may be as 

 many as a dozen eggs in each. Better break up the whole busi- 

 ness, giving combs with adhering bees to other colonies. 



Q. I have a queen that I reared in a nucleus. She is of good 

 size and pure Italian; very gentle. I have seen her lay while 

 holding up the comb, but I have counted as many as six eggs m 

 one cell What do you think is the matter with her? She is in a 

 hive but the bees cover only four frames in it. Do you think 

 there ought to be more bees in it so the queen could have more 



room? 



A. It is nothing unusual for a good queen to lay more than 

 one egg in a cell when she has so small a fo.rce of bees that she 

 hasn't room to spread herself; although it is unusual for her to 



