THE SEXES OF EGGS. • 19 



The reader has in these quotations the opinions of two 

 advanced bee-historians on the question hefore us. Ob- 

 servation, extending over many years, has not led Mr 

 Quinby and myself to the conclusions arrived at by Mr 

 "Woodbury, who considers the evidences and facts which 

 he has adduced quite sufficient to conviace any reason- 

 able mind that the eggs of a queen bee are, when laid, 

 of a fixed sex, unalterable in that respect. 



Having held the opinion that all the eggs of a queen 

 bee, in proper condition, are of one kind only, and con- 

 vertible into queens, males, or workers, for so many 

 years, it becomes us to give our reasons for holding to the 

 same opinion stUl. Supposing the eggs are of different 

 sexes, we are yet to be convinced, — 



I. That queen bees know what kind they ^re about to 

 lay. If Mr Woodbury's conclusions are correct, they do 

 know this, and lay male eggs in drone-ceUs, and female 

 eggs in worker-cells. The reader, of course, wiU use his 

 own reason in settling this " knotty point " to his own 

 satisfaction. Has a queen bee more power than a bird, 

 or beast, or human being, in the generation of oifspring, 

 to determine and fix the gender before her eggs are 

 dropped into cells? Can she loill to lay 1000 male eggs 

 to-day, and 1000 female eggs to-morrow? Or has she no 

 more power to destine gender otherwise than may occur 

 in human generation ? 



If the queen cannot will and fix the sex of eggs before 

 they are laid, do the working bees know any difference 

 between male and female eggs after they are laid ? If 

 neither the queen nor workers can distinguish the male 

 from the female eggs — i.e., those that are not fecundated 

 from those that are — ^how comes it to pass that male eggs 

 are deposited in drone-cells, and female eggs in worker- 

 cells ? Till the knowledge of the difference of male and 



