144 DR. miller's 



theory it is still true that no bee could start in as a laying worker 

 after it becomes old. 



Q. Different writers claim that drone-laying workers are the 

 only ones guilty of laying eggs on the sides of a cell. Last fall I 

 found a colony with a drone-laying queen of previous year's rear- 

 ing, and I found lots of worker-cells with two or three eggs in a 

 cell, some at the bottom and others stuck to the sides half way 

 down. In such a case, is the colony liable to have laying workers 

 acting in conjunction with the drone-laying queen? 



A. I think I never heard of laying workers being present 

 with a laying queen, at least for any considerable time. Queens 

 sometimes lay eggs on the sides of cells. 



Q. How am I to get rid of a laying worker? 



A. Generally the best thing to do with a colony that has lay- 

 ing workers is to break it up, giving the bees to other colonies. 

 It is difficult to get the bees to accept a queen. But if the colony 

 is strong enough, and you are anxious to have it continue, you 

 can give it a virgin just hatched, and this will pretty surely be 

 accepted. Or, you may exchange some or all of its combs with ad- 

 hering bees for frames of brood and bees from another colony 

 or colonies, and the younger bees thus introduced will accept a 

 laying queen. 



Q. Did you ever have any experience with laying workers in 

 a hive where a young queen has hatched? This is my experi- 

 ence: On May 9 I transferred a swarm of bees from a hive 

 which I expected to discard on account of its odd size. On May 30 

 all the brood was hatched, and on examination I found a queen- 

 cell already hatched, and by searching I found the young queen. 

 Today I went through the hive to see if the queen was laying, 

 and all of the eggs and larva which I found were in drone-cells 

 and the eggs scattered about in worker-cells. I examined closely 

 the comb on which I found the most drone-cells, and then and 

 there I saw a worker doing her work. What do you think of 

 that, with a young queen in the hive, and she a beauty? I closed 

 the hive, thinking things might right themselves if left alone, 

 but in the afternoon I found the queen on the alighting-board 

 dead, with a ball of bees about her. I broke up the colony at once. 

 Would you kindly tell me what you think of this case? When I 

 say they had a laying worker, I mean to say that I saw her lay 

 one of her eggs in a drone-cell. 



A. Your experience is quite exceptional. It is not often that 

 a laying worker is caught in the act. In all my experience I never 

 saw it, I think, more than once. If your bees are Italians, it is 

 remarkable that laying workers should appear when they did, 

 although with some of the other races laying workers are in- 



