22" HOTKEY BEESv 



Breeding. 



The natural increase of the honey bee is very im- 

 perfectly understood by the great majority of bee 

 keepers. Very many suppose that young bees are 

 raised only in the warm summer months, and their 

 ideas of the modus operandi of increase are exceed- 

 ingly vague. I find that strong stocks have matur- 

 ing brood nearly every month in the year — I have 

 found brood in stocks in December and January. 



The queen lays all the fertile eggs in the swarm ; 

 consequently all increase is dependent on her. I 

 say the queen lays all \h& fertile eggs, because occa- 

 Monally under certain circumstances we find eggs 

 laid by workers, but under my observation such 

 eggs never mature. Egg-laying workers are known 

 to be such, by eggs being found in stocks that have 

 been deprived of their queen, and the means of 

 rearing another. This is one of the wonders of 

 nature, of which no satisfactory solution has been 

 given. The points established as to the sex of bees 

 are these : The queen is a fully developed female ; 

 the drones are fully developed males ; the worker, — 

 what is it ? The worker is said by some to be neuter. 

 If this last is true, how are the eggs produced ? 

 Others say the worker is a female with generative 

 organs not fully developed! A pretty nice point 

 — to credit them with the power to produce eggs, 

 without imparting vitality sufficient to germinate. 



We will leave this knotty question, as it is of no 

 consequence in the practical management of bees 

 for profit. Suffice it then to say, the queen is the 



