Cradle-Cells. 129 
and she always lays at least enough 
to satisfy any reasonable lover of hard 
work. 
The cradle-cells of the drones are the 
same as the honey-cells, but the worker- 
cells are about one-fifth smaller. 
You see, the workers are smaller than 
the drones, and so can lie in smaller cradles. 
The cradle-cell of the queen is 
not shaped like the other cells, 
but somewhat like a thimble. £ 
It opens at the bottom, and is a\ 
great deal larger. : 
The queen goes about and lays an egg 
in each cell. She first puts in her head 
and examines the cell with her antenne, 
as if to make sure it is all right. 
This done, she deposits an egg in the 
bottom of the cell. She lays two kinds 
of eggs, one kind being what we call fer- 
tilized, the other kind unfertilized. The 
fertilized eggs always hatch into workers 
or queens, the unfertilized always hatch 
9 
